Talon of the Empire
by doncaster
Summary: The Galactic Empire has been humbled but has not yet been truly defeated. Some loyal remnants fight on against the New Republic and its inevitable rise. One such Man is Talon Rake, and this is his story. One of trials, defeat and glory!
1. Chapter 1

Space, a great eternal sea of darkness characterised by the occasional star or planet. It has been a symbol of hope and adventure for many, terror and foreboding for others. But for now, drifting through space near the small and cold world of Melvor , a world characterised by great rolling plains of tundra, was the Acclamator II class ship Resolve. She was an old vessel, part of the first wave of Acclamators commissioned by the Old Republic at the dawn of the Clone War and though she had been refitted several times, both to take up a more combat orientated role and to move with the times, her age was showing. Burns from glancing laser hits marred her surface and a great plate of protective armour had been crudely welded on to her top deck where a great hole had once been ripped in her. She was over forty years old now and whilst she was once the terror of the skies now, in the year 8 ABY, she was looking very small and very fragile.

She was crewed by men who remained loyal to the Galactic Empire. A brave cadre of men who refused to recognise the legitimacy of the New Republic and who, in many cases, refused to recognise their defeat. But despite their stubbornness they were not fools. They and their commanders knew that this ship could not hope to compete in a fight against a modern vessel from the New Republic and as ancient as she was the remnant of the Galactic Empire could not afford to just throw ships away. So vessels like this were often posted as patrol ships in safe systems or given the task of sneaking into enemy systems and attacking vulnerable merchant, supply and civilian convoys. It was not glamorous work but it helped to slow the New Republic down.

It was on one of these raiding missions that the Resolve was currently on. Ships like this, some of the most unimportant in the fleet, were crewed by two types of men. The senior crew tended to be experienced men, with years of combat under their belt, whilst the junior crew were made of fresh faced youths straight from training. The idea was that the experienced old men would teach the new crew all sorts of tips and tricks and thus greatly raise the standard of the new men. Also it meant the new crewmen, forced to make do with the oldest of equipment, would swiftly learn how to get the most from their technology greatly improving their efficiency when on more modern vessels.

It also meant that the senior crew had all sorts of useful skills and abilities. One of which was a skill almost any serviceman learns to pick up if they want to last more than a year, the ability to sense danger. It was like a sixth sense to some of the older dogs here and right now it was screaming at them. The Resolve had been on her mission for over a month now, she had managed to evade New Republic war ships in the area and had managed to intercept a number of unescorted convoys and was therefore responsible for the loss of over a million tonnes of cargo. The Republic was hunting the Resolve and it was only a matter of time until they were found.

The commander of the Resolve, Commander Aeron, was standing on the bridge, pensively staring out into the blackness. He saw danger now in everything but could keep calm, to show his nerves to the crew would have been a mistake. But he decided to voice his concerns to one man in particular. Lieutenant Talon Rake. Talon was one of the younger, less experienced crew but had done exceedingly well in his class and taken the top grade. This, coupled with a fierce loyalty to the Empire and always giving his utmost efforts in the discharge of his duties, had led to early promotion. But he still lacked real world experience. Commander Aeron saw the potential in this young man and had been keen to nurture it during their long mission.

Talon smartly approached the Commander and came to attention behind him. He was not a remarkable man, slightly less than six feet tall but made the best use out of every inch of it with his ridged posture. He was not particularly well built and his skin was slightly pale. He had a face like an eagle, his nose was hard and hooked, his imposing brow seemed permanently furrowed. His cheeks were slightly sunken and his jaw was sharp and his grey blue eyes seemed to stare out from their pits with an intensity that bore into your soul.

"You sent for me sir." Said the man, curtly. The Commander turned to face him, with a slowness that amplified his years and experience. The Commander was not a particularly old man, he was only in his late thirties. But a hard war and the burden of command had taken their toll. His face looked haggard well beyond his years and his brow seemed permanently furrowed. But he stayed upright, he stayed smart and he stayed authoritative.

"Yes young Mr Rake I did. Tell me young sir, how many ships do you estimate we have destroyed or immobilized in the past month?"

"Forty three sir." The answer was instant and to the point. The Commander seemed momentarily impressed with his instant recall of the facts but this was Talon he was talking to, he probably had the dates of every engagement in his head as well as the munition expenditure and damage reports.

"Quite so Mr Rake. So what do you think is out there?"

"The enemy sir. They cannot stop running convoys through this region but they will be escorted now. They will also have assigned a task force to hunt us down. We can expect at least one cruiser at the centre of a loose network of spotter ships moving in a grid pattern." The commander gave a little smile at the answer, Talon was right but it could have been an answer from a text book. Had the commander asked his second in command the question the answer would simply have been, trouble.

"Quite so Mr Rake. But where are they?" It was a question the Commander knew the man could not answer but he was going to let the lad say it himself.

"I do not know sir." At least the lad did not try to guess the answer or bluff his way out of it, the Commander could appreciate someone who admitted their ignorance. Gesturing out at the great empty void of space the commander smiled and said.

"We are squatting near the centre of their web, there is only light convoy activity near this desolate world but it is a little off the centre of the crisscrossing trade routes linking up the more important worlds in the system. It is not a place worth attacking so it will not be watched by the spotter ships but it is such an obvious place to hide that only a fool would shelter here and the New Republic knows the Empire does not put fools in command of these missions." The commander wore a sly little smile and looked at Talon, attempting to impress on him the importance of understanding the mind of the enemy, not just the strength of their ships and formations. Talon gave a nod of understanding but asked the obvious question.

"But the centre of the enemy web is the most logical place for the cruiser to be, waiting where it can most rapidly respond to a developing scenario." The commander nodded sagely, the young man was right.

"Indeed that is so young lad and the cruiser will come here just to rule out this world from the search but it will not expect to find anything. There is no place to hide here and any hyper drive jump would be detected. So instead we wait for the strength in their task force to come to us, unprepared for a fight. If we act quickly and the crew gives their utmost we may be able to disable their engines for a day or two, even an hour would be more than sufficient to allow us to make our escape from this system and the spotter ships will not dare pursue a vessel which has just immobilised a cruiser." Talon gave a single, short nod to indicate he had understood what his commander was saying. He had to learn to do what his enemy was expecting least in scenarios such as this and what the enemy was expecting least was for you to come at him at his strongest. It was a daring strategy and not one that he fully approved of but he understood the principle. Besides his approval was not required, he was an officer of the Empire and would always obey an order no matter how ill-conceived he might think it to be. But understanding the mind of the enemy was not the real lesson that the Commander was trying to teach.

No, the Commander was also trying to get Talon to appreciate the feeling of the situation. "What do you feel Lieutenant?" The question confused Talon at first and he answered inappropriately.

"I feel…fine sir." His confusion was obvious and prompted the Commander to smile, shaking his head with a gentle sigh.

"No no lieutenant, not how do you feel. What do you feel? Stay still and listen to everything around you and feel the air on the back of your hands. The crew sound different and there is a charge in the air, the feeling you get before the storm. It may sound alien to you but these techniques work and let me tell you the enemy are coming. Remember this feeling young sir, remember it well. It will save your life one day." There was a pause whilst Talon digested this information, he remained unconvinced and the look on his brow showed as much. The young officer may have been keen to learn and desperate not to seem stupid or worse yet disrespectful towards his seniors but he could not mask his disbelief. But the commander took it all in good humour. "You will learn young sir. You will learn. But for now we must be ready for the fight. Kindly inspect the torpedo tubes."

"Yes sir!" Came the lieutenant's smart reply. That was the type of order he knew how to follow. With a single smart and fluid motion Talon turned on his heel and marched off of the bridge like he would a parade ground. The young officer started striding through the cramped corridors of the resolve. Old vessels like this had tight enough corridors any way but the situation was made worse by the piles of coil, piping and wires stacked in the halls. A ship this old was permanently being repaired and as soon as one system was repaired another one would fail. Thankfully the crew managed to keep all the essential systems running but there was no denying that this ship was well past her best. Men came to attention as he passed by, respectful of his rank. Just because the ship was falling apart was no reason to let discipline crumble along with it.

When he reached the torpedo room in the forward lower decks of the ship he set about inspecting the loading mechanisms for the giant ship to ship torpedoes. Primary lighting had long ago failed in this room and the few crewmen condemned to work here had to do so in eerie red emergency lighting which did not so much banish the shadows as make them more pronounced and sinister. The torpedoes sat in the cradles menacingly, everyone was all too aware of just what they were capable of and the machines rose up to the rafters like a strange metal forest, devoid of leaves. Add to this the creaking and groaning of straining metal when the systems were place under any kind of stress and you ended up with a very foreboding room. But Talon spent a lot of time here, everyone knew that the torpedoes would be vital in surviving any kind of encounter with a military vessel and so he was permanently checking a rechecking the systems. It was whilst he was running diagnostics on the pneumatic pistons at the base of the loading lifts that an odd chill ran over him, and the hair on the back of his hands began to stand up.


	2. Chapter 2 Alarm!

"Alarm!" The cry rang across the bridge of the Resolve like a panicked shout. Immediately sirens began to wail across the entire ship and crew started desperately dashing to their various battle stations.

"Enemy cruiser has jumped in, MC90 class. Fifty degrees to port horizontal plane positive seventy degrees vertical plane." This was bad news, very bad news. The MC90 class was a brand new type of ship, brimming with some of the best technology the New Republic had to offer and whilst she was not the largest class in the skies, she was bigger than the Resolve and she packed an awful big punch for her size and readily outgunned the aged Imperial war horse.

"Turn fifty five degrees to port, nose up five degrees, full speed ahead!" Ordered the Commander, standing calmly on the walk way of the bridge as his crew scuttled about in the pits beneath him. "Range?" The commander asked.

"Five hundred kilometres and closing sir!" Came the reply from somewhere down below.

"Time until seventy five kilometres?" Asked the Commander again in level tones.

"At current relative speeds six minutes!" The voices from bellow were starting to seem a little anxious. This was the first time many of them had gone up against a new Republic Warship, up until now this mission had only involved attack vulnerable civilian and industrial convoys. Now they were going up against a superior ship crewed by men who were presumably more experienced than most of the crew of the Resolve. Still the Commander remained undeterred and his calm demeanour was keeping the men's fear in check. Other experienced officers around the ship were doing much the same with their junior crew also. The Commander knew that this was the best opportunity that they had to escape not just this system but the entire sector and be free to hunt elsewhere in the New Republic. The Commander also felt little respect for the majority of the New Republic fleet. There was no denying that their ships were better than ever and that they had some of the best small scale task forces and small craft formations in the galaxy, Rouge Squadron being the most infamous. But he doubted the quality of most of their senior and middle grade officers. Many had never had any formal training and were thus going purely by experience, most of which was gained fighting a guerrilla style war against the Galactic Empire and the new staff graduating out of the academies set up by the New Republic were being taught by lecturers who had never done it before and were teaching the students how to deal with a situation entirely alien to them, fighting large scale conventional fights and keeping galactic order. Add to this the fact that the Empire had not left behind any useful instructions, manuals or data which the New Republic could use to train their people and the New Republic was faced with an almost insurmountable challenge in training its officers. As a result of all of this the Commander was cautiously confident. Perhaps prematurely.

Reaching for his internal communicator the Commander spoke directly to the torpedo room where Talon had been making his inspection mere minutes earlier.

"Torpedo room, load MG1 F torpedoes. Gauge for maximum speed, range seventy five kilometres." The adding in a slightly less clipped manner. "We are making one shot, just forward of her engine ports. Don't miss….Bridge Out." Talon gave a silent and solemn nod, he understood the seriousness of his task and began the automated loading sequence for all four torpedo tubes. The MG1 F torpedo was a godsend for little ships like this. Expensive to produce but well worth the cost they were designed to allow ships like the Resolve to punch above their weight. Modified from the standard MG1 A torpedo from the clone war the MG1 F had a higher yield and a faster speed, but crucially it projected a particle field distorter just before impact. This counteracted fully intact particle shielding which could deflect physical weapons such as torpedoes. But with a maximum range of one hundred kilometres you had to get close to the enemy in order to deploy them, surprise was essential.

Talon watched the first salvo of torpedoes load before turning to his targeting computer. The target had been designated but it was up to him to set the torpedoes speed, course and spread. Talon was permanently checking and re checking the enemies speed and course. They had been caught off guard so for the moment they were not moving much but that could change at any moment and throw his targeting calculations off entirely. His stomach began to feel strangely heavy as he say the enemy cruiser turn on the spot and start to present one of her flanks, clearly preparing to fire a broadside. On the plus side this meant that they were making the target area easier to hit but it also meant that the Resolve was going to get rocked by enemy fire.

But there was another problem, wave after wave of enemy star fighters were starting to pour out from the ship. These had been the true strength of the Rebellion and now they were tearing towards a weak and vulnerable vessel. There sheer number threatened to overwhelm the Resolve's defences and cripple the vessel before it got close enough to fire her torpedoes.

"All available guns fire on the enemy fighters!" Ordered the Commander. He had not been anticipating fighting an MC90, or any vessel with on board fighters, this could be a problem. Was the New Republic really so powerful it had ships of this size to spare hunting down simple convoy raiders? No matter the fight was here and the Commander had resolved to win it. The guns of the Resolve opened up, lighting up the blackness of space with bolts of green laser fire. The Resolve was firing too early for its guns to be truly effective and not all of the laser canons and batteries were appropriate for anti-fighter roles but if they stood even a vague chance of taking a fighter or two out of the sky at this range they were shots worth making.

The Resolve was shuddering under the strain her engine was suddenly being put under and even down in the bowels of the ship you could hear metal creek and strain under the force of the high speed course corrections. It was as if she were about to tear herself in half simply by moving let alone by being fired upon.

"Distance to target?" Asked the Commander.

" Two hundred kilometres." Came the reply " Seventy Five seconds until optimum firing range." Seventy five seconds, not long. But long enough to die. Those fighters were just getting closer and closer all the time and doing a very good job of evading the Resolve's turbo laser batteries. They were almost close enough to open fire now and had taken hardly any casualties. The Commander narrowed his eyes, mentally bracing for the impact but refused to change course. The guns had destroyed a few X wings but the majority were slipping through the net even as the enemy ships entered optimal turbo battery range. Then, well then the X wings got their turn. The impact from their lasers caused the Resolve to judder slightly and minor damage was caused to the hull of the aged vessel but nothing to cause any real concern.

The problem was what happened just a few seconds later. Smaller torpedoes launched by the X wings impacted at various points all along the length and breadth of the ship. The Resolve's shields were still intact but their aged and poor state of repair allowed a few torpedoes to get through. Most impacted on non-vital systems but still caused the ship to rock alarmingly. One torpedo however, crashed straight into the deck above the torpedo room.

The impact sent machines toppling in the torpedo room, a pneumatic pressure pipe snapped spraying oil into the room. Torpedo's shook free from their cradles and started to roll across the floor. One rolled right towards the loading machine terminal, smashing into it with such force as to smash one side of it away and tear the delicate cables within. Automatic loading was now impossible. Thankfully those torpedoes already loaded were unaffected but there was now little chance of being able to fire a second salvo.

"Secure those torpedoes!" Cried Talon, still at the targeting computer ensuring his shots would not stray. "If those go up we will lose the entire forward section!" His junior crew started dashing around, desperately trying to catch the runaway munitions but the oil spilling out onto the floor made the task much more difficult as they continuously lost their footing. It might have looked funny, the way they staggered and slipped around, but due to the danger it was far from amusing. But still Talon stayed at his post checking his calculations and the firing mechanisms time and time again. Flicking a switch he opened up the internal communication network. "Torpedo room to bridge. Torpedo room to bridge. We have sustained minor structural damage and the loading mechanism computer has been destroyed. We are now capable of manual loading only."

"Understood." Came the Commanders reply over the inter com. "I am dispatching repair crews. Confirm you are still able to fire the first salvo."

"Confirmed sir, we have four torpedoes loaded and ready to fire. Launch mechanisms are unaffected by the blast."

"Very good, bridge out."

The X wings meanwhile, were crawling all over the ship like ants, hugging the hull of the ship in their highly effective trench running tactics to try and limit the number being picked off by turbo lasers and whilst a few were getting shot out of the sky most were surviving and getting dangerously close to the Resolve's shield generators. The weak shields of the Resolve could do little against the guns of an MC90, one or two broadsides was all they could take before they would lose shields. But that would be enough if their plan worked but they could not afford to lose their shields now. The enemy ship was still turning to present her guns, not yet in an optimum firing position whilst the Resolve tore towards it, aiming to pass just underneath.

"Divert power from all non-essential systems to the tracking mechanisms of the turbo lasers and point defence guns." Ordered the Commander, not a hint of worry in his voice, only grim determination. Down in the pits bellow his order was carried out and the Resolve's laser turrets started turning faster, better able to track the X wings. This resulted in more X wings being brought down and making it far harder for the X wings to get a decent run on the shield generators but still it was not enough. All it took was one lucky X wing pilot, one sloppy gunner or one over worked and poorly maintained turret to rupture a plasma feed and they would be doomed.

"Sir!" Came the voice of the second in command, Lieutenant Commander Jar, from the back of the bridge. "Engine room reports heat levels have exceeded safe operating parameters in the second and third heat control chambers. The aged heat sinks are failing too early!" The Commander just shook his head at this news and said in level tones.

"Ignore it, stay the course. Do not despatch repair crews yet. We must keep uncommitted repair crews back to maintain weapon and shield systems should they fail. Is the hyper drive system affected?"

"Negative sir!" Came the reply. "Only sub light engines are straining." The Commander gave a solemn nod at this but stayed silent whilst the second in command did his best to mitigate the overheating engines. "Engine room, try and divert the strain to the first heat chamber, the syncs there are new!"

"Thirty seconds to firing range!" Yelled a voice down from the pits, his nerves starting to waver under the stress of this critical moment.

"Enemy vessel has presented her flank." Came another voice from down below.

"All hands brace for enemy fire." Announced the Commander over a ship wide announcement. At that moment an X wing, damaged by turbo laser fire, span out of control and cartwheeled down toward the forward section of the Resolve, hitting the ship hard and detonating its engine and remaining torpedoes just above the Resolve's already weakened torpedo room. The explosion was near deafening for those inside. Talon found himself thrown to the ground with his ears ringing as bulkheads warped and bent above him. His vision became blurry and his sight was no longer keeping up with the tuning of his head. He was dimly aware of screams somewhere in the background. One of the crew men was trapped beneath a great slab of metal that had once been part of the ceiling, his legs crushed and pulped by the colossal weight. There was a secondary explosion somewhere up above which sent sparks flying all across the room. The emergency lighting failed and for a moment the room was thrown into darkness. That was until the oil caught fire from the sparks and suddenly the room was filed with dull flickering flames which rose all the time. Talon struggled to his feet his head still feeling heavy just in time to see one of his crew men run past him in a panic. Acting on instinct Talon snapped out an arm and caught the crew man by his sleeve.

"Stay your ground crewman! Get the emergency extinguisher from the corner and put out that fire! The same applies to all of you!" Even now with flames dancing around highly volatile munitions piled high in this room Talon refused to leave or allow any of his men to do so. He would not succumb to fear, he would not succumb to circumstance. He would fire those torpedoes. The fire continued to lick higher and smoke started filling the chamber. Reaching beneath him Talon pulled an emergency respirator from the base of the targeting computer and placed it over his mouth. Unfortunately as the fire spread it reached the man trapped by the debris and slowly started to engulf him. His low cries of pain from his crushed legs escalated into frantic wails of agony as he flailed desperately, trying with all his might to put out the flames. Trying, and failing. But perhaps even worse was the fact that the fire spread to the cables connecting the targeting computer to the launch mechanisms. The intense heat melted the protective covering and warped the cables. A red light lit up above the torpedo tubes indicating that they were no longer ready to fire. Talon was not about to except this.

Dashing forward, dodging in-between the rising flames Talon made his way to the manual over ride system and flicked the switch. A small section of what seemed to be the outer hull peeled back revealing a small, heavily reinforced window onto space. Inlaid into the glass was a set of metal cross hairs with sliding scales on the side to adjust for range and the vertical alterations in the targets course and a horizontal scale to allow for compensation for the speed of the enemy ship. Placing his hand on a wheel to his left Talon started furiously turning it to make the final alteration of the torpedo's course. With no computer to tell him Talon had to do the math himself and guess the range to the enemy vessel.

"Five…four…three." His eyes had narrowed now and he was deaf to the world around him, the fire, the screams, the threat of the overheating munitions behind him. None of this existed now. All that there was, was him and the target. "Two…one…fire!" Pulling hard on a crank by his feet a single loud alarm buzz sounded in the room as all four loaded torpedoes flew from the ship in a narrow spread heading straight towards their target. His job done there was no longer any need to stay in this flaming death trap of a room. "Evacuate the torpedo room!" He cried at the top of his voice and his crew men were all too happy to obey. All bar one instantly dashed out. The one who remained was extinguishing his trapped colleague. Jumping over Talon managed to slide the rubble off of the trapped man allowing him to be dragged to safety. The man was a mess, his legs were truly useless and bleeding heavily. Much of his face was hideously burnt, doubtless permanently disfigured and some of his clothes had begun to melt into his flesh with the heat. But he was alive, just. "Get this man to medical!" He barked at two of his junior crew man who began to drag the injured man away. Talon however, sealed the torpedo room and then remotely opened up both the firing hatches and the loading hatches of all the torpedo tubes, opening the room to the vacuum of space. He was hoping to such out all of the air and thus put out the fire, time would tell if this plan worked.

Meanwhile, on the Bridge.

"Torpedoes away sir! They are on target!" Came a voice from down below in the pits. There was a little cheer from the younger crew but the older men stayed quiet. They knew victory was far from certain, they still had the fighters crawling all over them and the enemy cruiser could return fire at any moment.

"Nose down twenty degrees. Emergency speed ahead. Steer hard to port. Navigation officer, plot a course to the Chandrila system. Start hyper drive engines." Order the Commander, his voice devoid of the excitement which had infected the rest of the crew, they had to get out of here fast and could not wait to see if the torpedoes were successful before preparing to leave. The sudden course alteration would also make them more difficult to hit but that did not stop the enemy trying.

"Enemy broadside incoming!" Yelled another voice from down below. A hail of red laser bolts poured from the side of the enemy cruiser putting the fire power of the Resolve to shame, some were clearly going to miss but a great many seemed poised to impact along the length of the Resolve and there was nothing she could do to get out of the way. All across the ship men were bracing against walls ready for the impact, even Talon had placed himself in a door way to shelter from any falling debris. But the Commander did not flinch. He simply stayed standing by the main view windows, hands clenched firmly behind his back. The shots hit the Resolve like a hammer, the entire ship swayed under the force, her engines barely able to compensate. Throughout the ship you could hear booming as the laser bolts punched through the weaker areas of the shields and tore into the fragile vessel. The commander could see pillars of flame and leaking gas erupt along his ship. But none of them were particularly large and vital systems were largely unaffected.

"Shields at thirty two percent!" Cried a worried voice from bellow. "Living quarters section one, twelve and sixty three are reporting hull breaches. All contact with forward storage chamber has been lost sir." There was nothing the Commander could do other than continue with the plan and so he remained silent.

"Torpedo one impact!" Cried a jubilant gunnery officer from bellow. "Torpedo two impact!...Torpedo three impact!….Torpedo four impact!" Whilst this was good news the Commander noted that his crew's mood seemed to swing far too readily with the tide of battle, he would have to impress on them the importance of keeping a level head and not allowing the fortune of battle to affect you. Looking out at the New Republic vessel the Commander inspected the damage. It was exactly as he had planned. The lines between the engines and the exhaust ports had been ruptured in numerous places. Cutting power to all but the weakest of manoeuvring thrusters. More over a combination of fuel, weapon plasma and other highly volatile substances was pouring from the enemy ship. No one in their right mind would dare fire through that. If they did it would ignite and the explosion would spread back to the New Republic ship, tearing it apart from the inside. However, the Resolve was also very close to the gas cloud and would also be caught in the explosion. They were using the gas as a shield, praying the cruiser was not stupid enough to fire on them.

But things did not go according to plan, the cruiser may have ceased fire but the X wings carried on, either unaware of the gas cloud or unaware of the consequences of igniting it. A stray laser bolt passed gently into the cloud and the world seemed to stop for a moment. What followed was a brilliant white explosion, made all the more eerie and powerful due to its silence in the empty void of space. Looking directly into the heart of it would cause a man to go blind and even the stubborn Commander was forced to shield his eyes. The explosion rippled up into the enemy cruiser. Igniting the fuel reserves and detonation the engine, causing a chain reaction of explosions through the inside of the ship. Great pillars of flame erupted along its huge length and vast sections of the hull snapped off and began to drift slowly apart. Until one huge secondary explosion propelled the vast chunks of what remained of the ship away from one another at colossal speed. The explosion itself hit the Resolve as well. For a moment the view ports were bathed in white fire.

"Shields have failed!" Came a cry from down below. The fire poured in from the hull breaches along the Resolve but were thankfully prevented from spreading due to the fact the rooms were already sealed. But the raw heat of the blast started to fry some of the electronic systems in the Resolve, one or two small munitions dumps even exploded. Thankfully the main armoury remained intact. The Resolve was truly mangled but it was still flying. That was until a huge cartwheeling section of the MC90 cruiser collided with monumental force into the back of the Resolve. In an instant half of her engine ports were ripped away and the others lost power and her own fuel began pouring into space. "We have lost all engine power!" Came that same voice from bellow. "We can no longer resist the gravitational pull of the planet."

The world out of the view ports started to slide sideway alarmingly and the entire ship was rattling and rumbling, in grave danger of shaking itself apart.

"Sir!" Came a cry from the Lieutenant Commander. "Were going down!"


	3. Chapter 3 A Difficult Landing

"Fire forward lower thrusters and aft upper thrusters. Try and bring our nose up!" Ordered Commander Aeron. By now the Resolve was tearing nose first towards the planet of Melvor. She had yet to hit the planet's atmosphere but the speed of her descent combined with the damage caused by the colossal explosion mere moments ago meant the ship was already starting to lose structural integrity. Every now and again a sheet of metal would peel away from the hull of the vessel and cartwheel away into space. For now the majority of the ship's bulkheads were holding, as were the various pillars and beams which formed the skeleton of the vessel. But this might not last for long.

"Five minutes until we enter the planet's atmosphere!" Cried a voice from bellow, over the rumble of a failing ship and the wail of stressed metal. "Ordering crew to life pods."

"Cancel that order!" Stated the Commander, worry still not present in his voice. Though a keen observer might notice his hands were now much more tightly clenched behind his back.

"But sir…." Replied the voice of the same young man, in a disbelieving tone.

"Carry out my orders. Time is of the essence." Until now the Commander had been staring out into space, but confronted with this potential insubordination he had been forced to turn around and directly address the wavering crewman in stern and authoritative tones. He did not blame the lad for his nerves or the desire to get off this wreck. Abandoning ship seemed like a sensible choice but several life pods would have been knocked out in the battle and even more lost in the explosion along with great chunks of the ship. Add to this the fact that no Imperial vessel would come to pick them up for quite some time whilst the first of the smaller Republic vessels would be on the scene in a matter of hours and evacuation was not the best option. Their best chance was to try and land this thing. But the Commander did not have time to explain all of this and had to rely on the unquestioning obedience of his men.

Aeron looked at the wavering young lad, staring him down but not in a way that was supposed to intimidate the boy into obedience but rather with eyes that asked his crewman to trust him. A moment of silence hung in the air before the crewman replied.

"Yes sir, cancelling the order." The Commander gave a little nod of approval at this before resuming his previous position, staring out of the window at the planet hurtling towards them. The firing of what manoeuvring thrusters they still had did little to help the situation. The nose came up a little but nowhere near enough. If they hit the ground nose first the ship would crumple like a concertina. This situation called for a little bit of creative thinking. After a few moments of silent thought the Commander hit upon a daring plan, it probably would not work and they only had one shot but it was all that came to mind.

"Reassign all available crew to repairing shield systems aside from those already working on the engines or in medical. I want to be able to precisely control shield strength across the ship." The crew men in the pit bellow him started carrying out the order, muttering through various internal communicators to the relevant crew. One such message was received by Talon, still bracing himself from the explosion in the corridor by the torpedo room.

"Lieutenant Talon and all crew under your command. You are to repair shield control systems in the forward most sections of the ship."

"Message received and understood." Came his reply. It was at this moment that the repair crew, sent to fix the torpedo loading mechanisms whilst the battle was still raging, thundered down the corridor. Talon could not help but crack a smile at their convenient timing even if they were all plunging towards their deaths. "Excellent timing men, we have to repair their shield systems in this part of the ship. The hub is in the ceiling of the torpedo room. Wait one moment." Turning to a small control panel next to the door he resealed the torpedo hatches and pumped oxygen back into the room. The whole process took about twenty vital seconds, then he unsealed the door and flung it open, allowing the repair crew to pour in.

Instantly the men set about their work, tearing away access panels to reveal reams of burnt out cabling and fried junction boxes. Some of the cable was salvageable and most of the core components were still intact. The shield systems themselves had not been greatly damaged by the fight and the shield generator was still intact. It was just that the amount of fire they had sustained had outstripped their shields capacity to keep up. The explosion however, or rather the ensuing heat, had caused severe damage to vulnerable cables and improperly insulated systems.

The efforts of the repair crew were being hindered by the debris lying around. The room had been badly enough damaged in the fight and the depressurising of the room had thrown around any objects that were not properly secured. Waving what was still left of his torpedo room crew back into the room her ordered.

"Get in their chaps. Clear the room for the repair crew." Then pointing at one of his men, a particularly spindly chap who seemed to be all skin and bones Talon added. "Yulish. Strip the cables from the normal lighting system and give it to the repair men. I don't think they have enough to replace all the burnt out wires."

"Yes sir!" Came the man's reply. He set about plucking cables away like someone playing the violin pizzicato. Yulish moved strangely and Talon could have sworn the lad had some Kaminoan blood in him, or Talon would have done had he thought it possible that humans and Kaminoans could breed.

But enough of this idle conjecture, Talon had a ship to save. Darting over to the torpedo loading tubes he started to tear away more access panels and began gutting them for useful wires. It looked like they would be okay, there was just enough cable to do the job. The question was could the repair crew replace the damaged wires fast enough. They certainly seemed to be doing their best. Their limbs almost seemed a blur as they frantically connected the wires and reforged vital joints and connections. Sparks from welding torches danced around and lit up the room creating ominous flickering shadows on the scorched walls.

"How long do you think it will take boys?" Inquired Talon, shouting over the noise of the work.

"Three minutes!" Came the reply. Talon gave a little nod. He had no idea if this was quickly enough. He had no idea how close they were to the atmosphere but he decided to appraise the Commander of the situation.

"Torpedo room to bridge, torpedo room to bridge. Repairs will be completed in approximately three minutes. Do you have further orders? Over."

"Positive torpedo room." Came a crackling reply over the internal communications. "Be advised all forward compartments will be sustaining severe damage. Remove all substances liable to explode. Bridge out." Talon understood his orders, the shields could not be relied upon to hold through all of re-entry and landing and if they failed this room in particular would be badly damaged, he knew what he had to do.

"All right, everybody aside from the repair crew start ferrying the torpedoes to the middle of the ship and put them in the armoury. Two men to a torpedo. Double quick!" Most of the lethal devices were still strewn around the floor, rolling about with the shakes and judders of the ship. But now, with nothing else to distract them, the crew were starting to get a grip of the things. The men started industriously ferrying them out and back towards the central munitions store. Talon was helping in the efforts, grasping one of the torpedoes by the rear whilst Yulish took the other end. Every time they passed any crew men who looked as though they were not doing anything useful Talon would order them back to the torpedo room to help in hurrying out the weapons.

But even running and with the fear of death to spur them on it was still a long way to the munitions room and running torpedoes down narrow corridors was difficult. There was certainly no time to make a second trip and it was doubtful that they would even get all of the first shipment to the armoury in time. Talon was relying on the efforts of the various men he had order back to the torpedo room as he passed them by. If they failed him, well it scarcely bared thinking about.

Back on the bridge time was growing painfully short.

"Thirty seconds until we enter the atmosphere!" Cried one crewman.

"All hands brace for impact!" Announced Aeron as he turned and calmly made his way to the back of the bridge. He had hoped for the shields to be online by now, they were to be their saving grace but alas…..

"Shield systems online!" Cried another voice from the pit. Not wasting time giving orders the Commander departed from his normal habit of calmly walking, hands behind back, and instead sprinted hell for leather towards one of the pits where the shield control systems were. Diving bodily into it he knocked a crewman aside and tore power from all systems other than the engines, life support and artificial gravity and poured it into the shield grid. There was no way the grid could cope with that kind of power for long but it did not have to. Perhaps even more confusingly he put almost all of that power to the forward shields and left the rear shields at twenty percent, barely enough to stop the vessel from catching fire as she tore through the sky.

"Fire manoeuvring thrusters again!" He bellowed across the bridge. "Make ready to…" It was at this moment that the ship hit the atmosphere. It was as if the vessel had been hit by some form of colossal hammer. The effect was made worse by what the Commander had done. By radically altering the proportional strengths of the shields he made the nose far more resistant than the rear. This meant that the nose wanted to fall more slowly and as a result of this the nose of the craft shot up and the Resolve was now plummeting down at a far less lethal angle. However the dramatic forces acting on the ship tossed almost everyone inside around like rag dolls. The Commander was sent sprawling to the floor and back in the bowls of the ship Yulish fell over backwards, the heavy torpedo falling down after him and smashing into his spider like legs. The man gave a yell that was more akin to a wailing dog than anything human. There was no way his legs were going to survive that, Talon even heard them snap as the Torpedo crashed down. Talon fell as well but he had the good fortune to fall forwards and sprawl on top of the torpedo, only adding to the weight on poor Yulish.

Above them a pipe ruptured and steam drenched the corridor, the lights smashed and all was chaos for a few dreadful moments. Even the metal around them screamed and wailed, louder now than ever as the tremendous forces acting on the ship threatened to tear her in half. In the shadows Talon could just about make out one of the bulkheads starting to warp and twist above him. Staggering to his feet he cried.

"Out, out! Everyone get aft!" The men around him were only too happy to obey, scrambling up and running away as the emergency red lights flicked on. Only Yulish was unable to make good his escape. Talon had begun to leave as well when he seemed to hesitate and look towards the safety of the door and then back at his crewman. Talon suffered a moments anguish and indecision, there could only be a seconds integrity left in this corridor but he could not just leave one of his men behind. So with an angry sigh and a muttered curse word he ran back to his trapped colleague and rolled the torpedo off of him, causing the injured man to give another sharp cry of pain. The lad was losing blood rapidly now that the pressure on the wound was gone and Talon had to get the boy to medical quickly. Heaving the light and spindly man up onto his shoulders Talon started running as best he could through the collapsing corridor as bolts pinged from their holes around and metal screamed as if in agony. Talon escaped only in the nick of time as an arch way behind him gave way and the corridor collapsed in on itself.

Back on the bridge Aeron clambered out of the pit and back onto the officers walkway, seeing to his uniform as he did so and smartening up. Resuming his usual posture, hands behind his back he ordered.

"Re distribute shields to normal proportions, keep this nose angle. Fire all remaining thrusters down. Do we have any of our main engines left." The world outside the view ports was on fire, it was one of those rare moments where you could actually see where the shields were as the flame covered mere inches above the hull. Soon it would clear and the cold and barren world beneath them would be laid bare.

"One engine port remaining." Called a voice from bellow. "Generating twenty percent of her normal power."

"Fire it immediately." Ordered the Commander. "We need to be going forward as well as down if we want to survive." The one remaining rear engine sputtered piteously into life. Every now and again it would die away only to spark into life again. It was a truly weak display but it did make them go forward somewhat. Now getting dangerously close to the ground the flame engulfing the ship died away to reveal the cold white and grey ground below that was fast approaching. Calmly pacing down the officers walk way to the back of the bridge where the Lieutenant Commander was already bracing for the impact the Commander took shelter next to his second in command. "All hands brace for impact with the ground." Announced the Commander on a ship wide announcement.

Talon, who was still running towards the medical facility with Yulish on his shoulders, gently placed the man on the ground, propped up against a wall ready for the impact while Talon lay on top of him, still trying to stem the tide of blood. There was then an agony of waiting where nothing seemed to happen aside from the shaking of the ship all around them. It only lasted for a few seconds but the moment lasted a life time as Talon clenched his eyes shut and thought of anything, anything other than the ground hurtling towards them.

The impact seemed to catch everyone by surprise, even the people who were ready for it. The colossal sound of the bang was the first thing anyone noticed as the rear of the ship smashed into the ground, the tattered remnants of her engine tearing away and cartwheeling into the ground where it promptly exploded in a hypnotic blue cloud. Plates of metal and hull armour were tearing after it in a shower of tiny metal shards which may have been pretty to look at as the sun glinted off of them but you certainly would not want to be there when they landed. The nose of the ship then smashed down with great force, flinging everyone and everything in the ship forward. Anything not nailed down flew about in a most alarming fashion, causing injury into any poor man they happened to fly into.

Up on the bridge the Lieutenant Commander's support gave way and he was sent flying across the bridge at great speeds where he smashed into the view screens. The force of the impact did not even cause a tiny crack in the heavily reinforced glass but the second in command, he was less fortunate. You could hear his spine snap right across the room and he gave a final low cry before sliding down on the ground and lying still. Far, far too still.

The already heavily damaged forward section of the ship, containing the torpedo room, began to break away in increasingly large chunks. Huge sections of ship were being left in the massive trench the ship was digging into the surface of the planet as it tore along the surface. One such section tore away and flew back along the length of the Resolve, bouncing off of the main hull and ricocheting up towards the bridge. For the Commander, and all in the room, the world went into slow motion as the great hunk of metal tore towards them but they were powerless to get out of the way. The impact seemed to happen without sound as the left half of the bridge was sheered away as the great metal hunk passed through the bridge like a knife through butter. For those lucky enough to be on the right side, such as Commander Aeron, they had to watch great hunks of flying debris tear through the bridge. One of which tore straight towards the Commander, in an instant all the sound from the previous few seconds seemed to hit him all at one in a deafening high pitched scream before the world went black and still.


	4. Chapter 4 A Cold Reception

It had been over an hour now since the crash and the Resolve was not in a good way. Nothing remained of her engine ports and whilst the hyper drive and main power generators were still largely intact the feeds to the engines had been ripped open. Fuel and other dangerous substances had leaked out from these feeds and though the leaks had now been brought under control there was a very large and very toxic pond steaming away towards the rear of the ship.

Much of the ship's nose had also been torn away, leaving little house sized chunks of ship scatted along the huge trench in the earth that the Resolve had created during her landing. Other holes, from the battle and the colossal explosion, pocked the upper surface of the vessel and in some cases small sections had been entirely blown away. Other sections had been dented and crushed and the entire vessel was covered in burn marks.

Even worse was the underside of the ship, well to describe it as having any underside was perhaps being a little generous. Almost all of her underside armour had been stripped away and great chunks of the Resolve's lower most deck were gone, ground away by the force of the impact and the slide across the frozen tundra that made up the majority of the planet of Melvor.

Inside the ship things were barely contained chaos. Several vital repair crew and technicians had been lost when the nose of the ship was torn away. Others had been injured by being tossed around inside the ship when they hit the surface of the planet. This meant that an understrength repair team were desperately trying to keep the ship in order. There was no way that this ship was ever going to be truly repaired. For the moment they were just trying to stop various toxic substances leaking out or preventing the reactor from slowly overloading. Right now anyone who could walk and hold a spanner was being drafted in as emergency repair crew.

That was anyone who could walk, hold a spanner and did not have medical training. Anyone who had so much as taken the most primitive of first aid courses was currently in and around the medical wards. The wounded and dying could no longer be housed in the medical facility and were being laid out in the already cramped corridors and placed in the mess hall. The medical supplies on board were not enough to deal with injury on this scale and power had failed to a lot of medical equipment. To make matters worse the doctors had to assume they would be stuck on this wretched planet for some time and were therefore trying to ration medical supplies, expending them only when strictly necessary.

This resulted in emergency surgery being conducted without proper anaesthetic, or in many cases without anaesthetic at all and sometimes with improper tools. People were being strapped to tables to stop their violent writhing and desperate attempts to escape the surgeon's knife. Some were lucky enough to be put under, but most just had to do with screaming.

To make matters worse still the temperature outside was approximately minus thirty degrees Celsius and the great many holes torn in the ship allowed a lot of this cold just to poured in. The wind would occasionally gust down the corridors of the ship, wailing like a ghost and making lose debris rattle. But at least things could not get any worse. Right?

In the medical bay proper Talon walked in. The cold was getting to him, he was shivering and breathing great clouds of steam. He felt chilled to the bone and his naval officer's uniform was not providing proper insulation. His hands were covered in grease and his face was dirty from crawling around engine maintenance shafts as he assisted with repairs. He had been summoned here by the chief medical officer, who coupled with the chief engineer was managing the disaster. Talon had no clue as to why he had been summoned, he just knew his presence was immediately required.

"Mr Rake." Came a familiar voice from somewhere in the chaos of the medical bay. "Over here young Mr Rake. By the broken droid." Following the sound of the voice Talon located his Commander. Aeron was in a bad way, a very bad way. They had managed to stop the bleeding, more or less but Talon wished they had not, it just made his wounds all the more obvious. A piece of shrapnel had clearly hit the man in the head. He had a colossal and deep cut running diagonally across his face. The man's right eye was clearly badly damaged, perhaps beyond repair and the lower half of his nose had ripped away, presenting an ominous and gory display. His jaw also seemed badly damaged and was being held together by some form of primitive metal cage. The Commander's left shoulder had also been pulped resulting in what was left of the man's left arm hanging from him by strained sinew alone, the bone crushed beyond all use.

The Commander's voice was very weak but even now it was calm and controlled. "Mr Rake. The Lieutenant Commander is dead and soon I will be of no use. I may even join him. I am field promoting you Lieutenant Commander. Central command will have to confirm it later but we need someone to be in charge. There are older men than you here, who were next in line for promotion but this is a dire hour. We need an officer to meet it….." The Commander seemed about to expand on why he had picked Talon but a sudden wave of pain racked him and the Commander hissed in anguish before calming down.

Cutting his story short he said. "Don't let me down Talon. Don't let the crew down."

"I will not sir. I will carry out my newly assigned duties to the standard you and the Empire expect." Replied Talon in the formal tones he used around superiors. The Commander seemed to smile at this and give a little laugh, or it could have been a cough from the blood in his lungs.

"The naval officers will follow you but you…you need. You need Jan on your side." Talon was going to ask more questions of his mentor and his commanding officer but at that moment the surgeons came.

"I am sorry sir." Said one of the surgeons. "We must operate at once, the Commander may not be fit to receive visitors for some time." Without waiting they started to wheel the man away to who knows what fate. Talon did not care to contemplate it. The newly appointed Lieutenant Commander then made his way to what was left of the bridge, hoping to get a better idea of the situation as he puzzled over just what to do next and who this Jan person was.

Talon was still no closer to working out who this mysterious figure was when he eventually arrived on the bridge, thank heavens the turbo lifts still worked. Making his way to one of the few working computers, down in a now abandoned crew pit, he started to flick through the crew manifests, browsing by rank. It was a while until he found the name Jan and it was not where he thought it would be. Talon was expecting the man perhaps to be an engineer of sorts, or perhaps related to a powerful or influential family in the Empire. Talon would have been more at home if the man's record presented the tell tail signs of an undercover Imperial Intelligence officer.

But no, Jan was instead a ranking officer. Equivalent to a lieutenant he would have, until recently, had technical superiority over Talon. This man was in charge of the small cadre of storm troopers aboard this vessel. Storm troopers were something of a mystery to Talon, he never quite connected with them. He had no idea what they did to enemy moral but the scared the life out of him. Hoping he was wrong Talon kept on searching but this Jan Frieda was the only Jan on the list, aside from a low level cook and it could not have possibly been him.

So with a sigh Talon set about getting the ship in order. He was about to descend the turbo lifts again when something made him stop and turn around. Staring down towards the main view window he looked at the battered corpse of his predecessor, the old Lieutenant Commander. He had been a stoic man and a tad distant from the men but he had discharged his duties well. Gently pacing over to the corpse Talon rolled it on its back and reached down, his hand hesitated for a moment before he gently prized away the man's rank badge. It was five blue rectangles and one red rectangle in a single line, Talon removed his own rank badge and put this one in its place before taking the two code cylinders off of the corpse and tucking them into his breast pocket so one was at each end of the badge.

This might have seemed a little macabre, even disrespectful but in Talon's mind it was necessary. He had been taught to obey the rank, not the man. In theory every man on this ship was supposed to do the same, so he needed the rank badges to exercise his new authority and get the obedience he would doubtless require.

Now, with everything he needed, Talon made his way back to the turbo lifts and descended back into the bowls of the ship. He was prioritising the needs of the crew and the ship in his mind as he descended. Firstly, most of the engineering teams needed to keep repairing and stabilising key ship systems. Secondly they needed to procure either more suitable clothing or to plug the various holes in an area of the ship large enough to house everyone warmly, in these conditions hypothermia was a very real risk and whilst it was warmer in here than it was out there it was still far too cold for comfort or health. Thirdly, they needed more medical supplies so they could stop rationing what little they had. Fourthly they needed to prepare for an attack. It would be a while, but the New Republic would come for them. The small frigates and patrol ships would descend on this world and though they lacked the firepower to bombard the site they would have fighters to strafe them and troops to land and launch a ground assault. And of course linked to all of this was the need to get a distress signal back to the Empire and be rescued from this death trap of a world. All in all, quite the to do list.

Now back in the bowels of the ship Talon made his way to the nearest available, empty room. It had been an officers quarters, who knew if the officer was alive or dead? Personal possessions, family pictures and other knick knacks had been strew across the room from the impact. The bed had been torn from its mounting in the wall and had smashed in to the other wall at the back of the room, creating a worrying dent. Reaching for his internal communicator Talon announced.

"The chief engineer, the chief medical officer, the chief gunnery officer, the communications officer and the commander of the storm troopers are to report immediately to officers' quarters 17 C. That is all."

It would be a few minutes until they all arrived and Talon spent the time trying to clear away some of the mess so as that they could all fit in the tiny room. The gunnery and communications officers were the first to arrive. Both were lieutenants and both wore the same olive grey uniform to Talon, although the communications officer had lost his hat in the commotion. Next came the chief engineer, named Horton, who had removed his tunic and hat all together, displaying a grey shirt underneath. He was covered in grime, oil and other gunk inevitable in the repair process. He even had a few cuts and scraped, either from the landing or from injuring himself as he crawled around the belly of the ship. Next to arrive was the chief medic, who wore a white apron over his clothes and looked more like a butcher than a doctor. He was covered in blood and other fluids and he had rolled his sleeves up to reveal bloody and also very hairy forearms.

Last to arrive was Jan, or at least Talon guessed it was Jan. The all encasing white armour made it hard to tell but why else would a storm trooper just wander in? Besides, the orange shoulder pauldron was a clue to his senior rank inside the storm troopers. Jan was a big man and his stature would have been imposing even outside the armour. He held himself in a confident manner but not with the ridged uniformity Talon displayed. Rather he stood in a more casual fashion, but not a sloppy way, rather he just oozed natural confidence and control.

"Very good gentlemen." Talon began. "Now that you are all here we can begin. I will start with you." He gestured to the gore soaked medical officer. "So as that you can return to your urgent work." Passing the medical officer a data pad which had been lying on the floor and had previously used as a diary by the officer who lived here Talon ordered. "Please make a note of all the medical supplies and equipment you need, in order of priority. You may then return to your work." The medical officer shot Talon an odd look, this exercise seemed pointless to the man and he might have argued but that would just have taken more time, time the man could be spending in surgery so he just set about making notes as hastily as he could. Turning to the engineer Talon was about to press on when he was suddenly interrupted by Jan.

"Why are you giving us these orders lieutenant? The chief engineer has held his commission for longest, he has superiority." The question hung in the air like a bomb. It was rare for any imperial officer to have to suffer such a direct challenge to his authority in public. But Jan thought he could get away with it, after all Jan had held his rank for longer than Talon held his old one so until mere minutes ago even Jan could have ordered Talon around in a crisis.

"I am your Lieutenant Commander. I hold superiority here…" Once again Talon seemed about to press on when Jan cut him off once more.

"Oh really? No disrespect but as I recall the Lieutenant Commander is dead." The situation was edging towards dangerous now. Some Imperial commanders would have had Jan shot for that but Talon was not that sort of a leader. Besides he was mindful of Aeron's advice to get Jan on his side. But it was proving more difficult that Talon had hoped.

"The old Lieutenant Commander is certainly dead. I have been made up to Lieutenant Commander in order to replace him and serve the interests of the crew."

"The interests of the crew?" Jan replied. "The Commander is a sensible man, he would not have made up a man as inexperienced as you in this crisis. Certainly not if he was of sound mind." Jan was starting to get to Talon, you could see it in the sudden ferocious stillness of Talon's expression. Talon could not afford to lose this encounter and forsake any respect, authority or command his new rank gave him. Everyone knew promotions made by people not of sound mind were invalid, Jan's accusation was a serious one and precedent showed that people on the brink of death often acted irrationally and could not be said to be of sound mind.

"You would think the Commander's judgement so easily clouded?" Replied Talon, everyone on the ship respected the Commander, he was a good leader with long experience, sound judgement and remarkable resolve. Anyone who had the approval of the Commander instantly got a good deal of respect from the crew. And those who questioned him instantly lost respect. "Very well." Continued Talon. "The chief medical officer is in a position to assess the Commander's state of mind. How was he before his surgery?" Asked Talon, posing the question to the blood soaked man beside him.

The man paused before answering, why was anybody's guess but Talon thought the man was making up his mind as to whether Talon should or should not be in charge. After all the entire issue now rested on this man's word. After some consideration the doctor came out with.

"Whilst the Commander was certainly in pain he was coping with it remarkably well. Nor had we given him any drugs which would affect his ability to reason. Also his general behaviour reflected someone of sound mind. I see no reason why the promotion should be invalid on medical grounds."

Silence reigned once again but as far as Talon was concerned it was a triumphant one as he allowed his victory to settle in. Everyone else was waiting to see how Jan would react, they knew him better, they knew he was not a man you wanted as an enemy. Jan had the capacity to break a commanding officer. He would not attack them, shoot them in the back or brazenly disobey an order. Nor would he take a dislike to an officer on the grounds of personality or any other petty reason. No he only opposed commanders who he thought would get his men needlessly killed. He would break them through disrespect. Jan commanded the absolute loyalty of the storm troopers, scout troopers and similar personnel on board. He also commanded the respect and loyalty of most of the junior crew, people who would never interact with the most senior officers but who dealt with Jan quite often. Jan even went to great lengths to eat with the junior crew, socialise with them and work with them. He was to the lower ranks what the Commander was to the officers. So if you did not have Jan on your side it was bad news.

Keen to get away the medical officer finished writing down the list, passed it to Talon and silently left to get back to his busy work. Shortly afterwards Talon pressed on with the business of the meeting.

"Chief engineer Horton. You, unfortunately have a lot of work to do. Once the vessel is no longer at risk of detonating, collapsing in on itself or suffering some other catastrophe you are to cannibalise parts of the ship which have fallen off or are of no use and patch as many of the holes in the hull as you can. No need to make the Resolve space worthy, just try to keep out the cold. However, I also need you to give over one or two crew men to the communications officer here." He said, gesturing at the man. "He will direct your crewmen in the creating of some form of distress beacon or better yet re-establishing full communications. Do you understand?"

He looked at both of the men and both of them nodded. Talon then turned to the gunnery officer and continued in a matter of fact but still friendly way. "Unfortunately we can expect the New Republic forces to reach us before an Imperial rescue team. I doubt they have cruisers in the area so we will not need to worry about orbital bombardment. However, we will likely have to face attacks from star fighters and ground assaults, possibly supported by light armour. I want you to assess what guns we can bring back online and what we will need to do it." Then, passing the man the data pad Talon added. "Write down the needed materials here." Then looking back at the communications officer and the chief engineer, Talon added. "You two gentlemen, also write down in the pad what materials you will need. Oh, and if possible try and bring the shields back online, at least partially. I know it is awful lot to ask chief engineer Horton, so put it at the bottom of the priorities I just gave you."

Finally Talon turned to Jan, momentarily unnerved by that intimidating white helmet, but he did his best not to let it show. Taking a step towards the storm trooper he gently prodded him in his chest piece and added in a slightly lower tone.

"You…..can just wait."

"Yes sir." Came Jan's reply, dripping in poorly concealed hostility and disrespect with a healthy dollop of contempt. The various other officers in the room kept on chatting for a while, passing the data pad between them and making various entries. When they were done they passed the pad back to Talon.

"Thank you very much gentlemen, you may return to your duties." With that said they all sidled out, all too eager to get away from the dangerous mix of Talon and Jan. With them gone Talon waited for a moment or two. He was considering giving the storm trooper a very serious dressing down but he could not bring himself to yell at that helmet, it was too unnerving, too intimidating. Plus he was still aware of the Commander's advice, to get this man onside.

So instead Talon took in a little sigh, tossed the data pad in the air and deftly caught it between two fingers and then in one smooth movement proffered it to Jan.

"We know that this planet is not uninhabited. Supply ships come in every now and again, there may not be many settlements but there will be some. Unfortunately we are not in possession of any up to date maps. I need you and your troopers to go out there, find a settlement and get me my supplies. I know you don't have all the gear for this weather but you must do what you can. You and you teams can take any spare equipment, clothing and so on you see fit. Just get the supplies."

There was another moment of deadly silence in the air before Jan slowly reached out and took the pad.

"Yes sir." Was his only reply.


	5. Chapter 5 Supply and Demand

Cold, so cold, so very cold. At least this was the thought going through most of the storm trooper's heads. There was no appropriate snow trooper gear in the wrecked remains of the Resolve. As a result the men were cold, very cold. Their normal suits could do something but only so much, so in order to try and compensate the troopers had improvised as best they could. Sheet after sheet of grey, standard issue, Imperial bedding had been ripped away by the storm troopers and wrapped around them like a child's blanket. They had even wrapped it around their heads like a Tusken Raider may in the desert. Several troopers had even taken jackets and trousers from dead crewmen and tried to wear it over their armour, with limited success. The armour, of course, made them much more bulky and so the clothes were too small or even ripping in some places. But every layer was a precious one.

They looked a shambles but you could still tell they were storm troopers, some of the Empires finest and accompanying them were a small number of scout troopers, devoid of speeder bikes, who were similarly wrapped up against the cold. It had been a while since the briefing with Talon and the now half frozen Jan had taken an even greater dislike to his new Lieutenant Commander. Talon had been in charge less than a day and already he was sending people to their almost certain deaths, or so Jan thought.

Jan would survive of course, he always did. You did not get to live this long in the storm troopers without being as hard as nails and having the luck of the devil. Jan doubted Talon could last a day as a trooper. His anger at Talon helped to keep him warm. But the majority of Jan's mind was taken up with concern for his men. As tough as they were he doubted that they could hold up in these conditions for long and they had already been out here for a very long time. Jan was thoroughly impressed with his scout troopers, often derided as wannabe troopers they had been out here for even longer, had moved faster and lain eyes on a small town, to which the group was now heading in force.

"How much further is it Lani?" Asked Jan to the scout trooper next to him. Lani was a short man, though not comically so, and walked with an almost cat like softness. He looked as though he should be stalking animals in a wood rather than trudging through frozen tundra with high wind chill.

"Not far sir, just over this hill sir." Replied the trooper in chipper tones, seemingly unaffected by the cold or possibly even enlivened by it. Some people were strange like that.

"Good." Replied Jan, in tones that were less than enthusiastic. He was still bitter about the mission. But more pressingly he was concerned about the town. This was Rebellion territory, Jan refused to lend the New Republic any credibility by calling it anything other than the Rebellion, how welcoming would the locals be? Worse still would they be capable of defending themselves. If so they would be crossing a wide expanse of open ground against what might be a prepared position. This was of course, not good.

When they eventually reached the top of the next, shallow hill Jan raised a hand to stop his men whilst he took a long look at the town. He was trying to take it all in when another scout trooper popped up from the ground less than ten meters away. The man had been lying in a little dip in the ground and had spread his sheets over him to conceal his body. This combined with the small amount of snow which had settled on him and general dirt and grit from rolling around on the tundra had made him look like a part of the earth.

Jan was almost surprised at this but he had seen scout troopers hide before, they were good at it, the sneaky devils. This second scout walked up and gave a little nod to Lani before addressing Jan directly.

"Sir I….." The scout gave a little stutter and shiver, he had been laying in the cold for quite some time and he felt like an ice cube and he was likely going to need medical attention. But, regaining his composure he continued. "I have been watching the town and they do not seem aware of our presence. News of the crash will have spread but no one will be expecting survivors. They seem to have no form of meaningful defence."

Jan nodded and patted the scout on the arm saying.

"Fall in." Before turning to Lani and adding. "Civilian target. Unprepared. Unaware. Armed men likely restricted to law enforcement and game hunters. They should offer no resistance. Still….there may be radical Rebel zealots present. Lani, take you scouts and move across the field to screen our advance. Stop just short of the town. My troopers and I will follow and take control of the town itself."

Lani nodded and began waving his troops forwards, spread wide across the field and moving cautiously, checking for traps. The town itself was very small. It seemed to be made primarily of small, very low buildings but this was not surprising. To aid insulation settlements in these conditions were constructed almost wholly underground. All they could see of the town was the top most stories of the buildings. Even these were partially covered by small sprinkling of snow and were painted a dull grey, blending in with the dull, featureless surroundings almost perfectly.

Jan sat down on the cold hard ground and watched. Lani was taking his time to go forward but things like this could not be rushed. Jan's men were also taking the opportunity to rest, sitting down and curling into balls, knees tucked up against their chest, in an attempt to keep warm. Several were rocking back and forth whilst one or two were jumping up and down on the spot.

Eventually a hand signal from Lani prompted Jan to get up and say.

"All right boys. Up. Up! Get across that field, move quickly and do not bunch up! Move!" The storm troopers entered a flurry of well-practiced activity. They moved across the open expanse just like they moved across the training ground. With people stopping and giving cover whilst other troopers advanced beyond them and then repeating the process over and over again. Eventually they passed Lani and his scouts and got to one of the building entrances. As you would expect the door was thoroughly sealed but that was little obstacle to storm troopers.

Without so much as an order one of the troopers moved forward, placed a charge on the door and retreated a safe distance. There was a pause for a few moments before the small blast blew the door off of its bolts and sent it hurtling inside. Following it came the troopers, only a few at first with their blasters set to kill just in case. They found themselves advancing down a narrow flight of stairs, going down into the planet. At the bottom of these stairs was a single man behind a desk who suddenly panicked and reached under his desk.

Assuming he was going for a gun the lead storm trooper ran, hell for leather, towards the man. The trooper got their just as the man began to straighten up. Not waiting to see what was in his hand the trooper threw a punch across the desk which connected with his opponents jaw, staggering the man. Still the trooper attacked, grabbing his dazed opponent's head and slamming it down into the desk before yanking the head back up again and punching him between the eyes three times.

The man went limp and fell back with a gentle groan. The man was not dead but had lost consciousness. His nose was broken and pouring blood and judging by the little trail of blood coming from his mouth he had lost a tooth as well, perhaps even suffered from a broken jaw. But hey, it could have been a lot worse. Especially since it was now clear that he had not been going for a gun, but rather a short range communicator, doubtless trying to alert the rest of the town.

A few other troopers went by before Jan walked up calmly, holding his E 11 blaster casually at his side.

"Bind his wrists and bring him with us, we may need him." Ordered Jan before he walked on. It was quickly becoming apparent that the various buildings here were linked primarily via underground tunnels and the few buildings up top were the entrances and emergency exits to and from this tunnel system. The troopers spent some time wandering the corridors with no opposition but they also achieved nothing. What Jan needed was a map, thank fully after some time walking around they found a map painted onto the wall with a helpful key and a convenient "you are here" arrow to boot. It was a like a map you would find in a shopping mall, but it would do.

Looking over it for a few moments Jan jabbed his finger against the wall declaring.

"Here. Medical. Trooper, lead the way." He said, gesturing at a nearby faceless drone. Carrying out his orders the trooper started jogging down the corridor with the rest close behind. The storm troopers were not interested in holding this town, only getting their supplies and so they did not bother with the myriad of doors they passed on the way, which presumably led to private dwelling houses.

When the group eventually reached the small hospital in this town they passed through the main doors with no opposition. They burst into a pleasant reception room which had been tastefully decorated with flowers, soothing pictures and pleasant, mellow lighting. A pair of women, doubtless receptionists, were behind the front desk and greatly alarmed at the storm troopers tearing in. One just started screaming and screaming and screaming. The other, with a little more spunk to her, reached for the nearest heavy thing she could find, a potted plant, and hurled it over arm at a storm trooper.

The pot smashed against the storm troopers helmet, but a mere potted plant was not going to do much against a plastoid composite helmet. Many men, even some imperial storm troopers, would have shot the woman for that but these troopers stayed calm.

"Get on the ground!" Order Jan loudly, but neither of the women obeyed. One just kept screaming whilst the other was running to another nearby heavy object. "Get on the ground!" He demanded again but still he was ignored. The room was crawling with storm troopers by now, weapons raised and ready to fire. Jan gestured at the fiercer willed woman prompting a storm trooper to holster his weapon and calmly advance on her as she threw another projectile, this time a small chair which thankfully missed the man.

The trooper got to the woman and delivered a single strong punch to her head, sending the woman sprawling onto the ground where upon the trooper instantly knelt on her back and stated to restrain the woman. The other woman was still screaming prompting Jan to say in a tired but also annoyed tone of voice.

"Someone please shut the woman up!" Another faceless trooper happily obliged and walked up to the shrieking receptionist before smacking the butt of his blaster rifle straight into her forehead with great force, knocking the woman out could and making her fall like a rag doll. "Thank you." Was Jan's only reply.

They were about to press deeper into the tiny hospital when a man ran around the corner holding a first aid kit, clearly having thought that the screaming indicated some form of accident. But upon seeing the troopers a worried look set upon his face and the man instantly turned around and ran back in the direction he had come from. "Catch him!" Order Jan and a pair of troopers pursued the man.

The man was tearing deeper into the tiny hospital when he eventually arrived at a desk, leaning over it the man opened a draw, drew out a blaster and turned to fire on the troopers. Unfortunately for him the troopers were faster on the trigger and proceeded to put three blaster bolts into the man, throwing his body back across the desk where it then lay. Unfortunately it was now impossible for anyone in this tiny hospital to not know that they were under some form of attack.

"Round up and restrain the people!" Cried Jan. "Bring them here and seal the door. We can expect to be besieged by the local militia soon!" Rounding up the people took some time, several of them were hiding, one or two fools even tried to put up a fight but eventually they were all gathered in the reception area and on their knees. Jan holstered his weapon and stood in front of the row of prisoners calmly saying. "Which of you is the chief medic?" Silence reigned, no one willing to speak up. "Who is the chief medic?" He asked again, in more urgent tones.

"You killed him." Said one of the men on his knees with a tone of hate and loathing, judging by his clothing clearly a medical man himself.

"Ohh you make a very poor liar." Replied Jan, approaching the medic. "That man was far too young. You though, you look about the right age. And you are very keen to protect these people, you are the chief."

"He was old enough to have a family." Replied the man, avoiding the issue.

"He was old enough to have a gun!" Came Jan's snappy and somewhat angry reply. "I do not have to justify the actions of my troopers. You just have to do what I say!"

"No." Said the doctor in very calm but very definite words.

"No?" Questioned Jan. "You little…" Reaching for the Doctor Jan pulled him up by his arms, ruffling up his sleeves to reveal a little tattoo. This caused Jan to give a little snort and toss the man back on the ground. The tattoo was a little series of numbers, an imperial prisoner code. This man was an ex-convict and more to the point, in all probability a rebel or at least a rebel sympathiser. Jan had not been anticipating a welcoming population but for the lead doctor to be a rebel, that threw a spanner in the works.

Jan had to take a moment or two to think of a solution, during which time the doctor piped up with.

"Why can't you accept that you are beaten? Your…." The doctor was clearly about to press on when Jan delivered a sharp boot to his face.

"We are not beaten, worlds may have been lost, casualties may have been sustained and our original leaders may have been killed. But the Empire is greater than any of that. We may have retreated but soon we shall reclaim the galaxy. A galaxy which is only safe, prosperous and peaceful under Imperial rule. Whilst self-important, self-entitled parasites such as you jealously and greedily tear at all which is great." Jan's words had a sense of hate to them that was palpable and though it was impossible to see under that helmet it sounded like he was frothing under there.

"You…" Again the doctor was going to make a point and again he received a boot to the face.

"Shut up. You will get me the medical supplies on this list. You can do it faster than my men, but do not think you are in expendable, we could do it ourselves eventually. My men will check the supplies as you deliver them. For everything which has been tampered with and for every minute you take over fifteen I start taking bits off of these people. Your bleeding rebel heart cannot withstand that." Handing the list over Jan also gestured for the doctor to be cut loose so he could get on with his work. The doctor stood up with hate in his eyes.

"You bastard!" The doctor spat. "You utter…" But Jan cut him off.

"Get to work traitor! You three troopers, escort him." He passed a copy of the list to the doctor and watched the man being ushered off. Jan was not a man devoid of mercy or common human decency. He took no pleasure in threatening the lives of hostages but he needed results quickly. Plus it seemed that this settlement was sympathetic to those that had torn down the Empire and in Jan's mind such people needed to be punished. As for actual Rebels, well. He would gladly put them all up against the wall.

Moving behind the reception desk Jan flicked on a holographic communicator. It took some fiddling with the controls and the pre-sets but eventually Jan managed to contact someone else in the settlement. The flickering blue hologram of a man looked stunned to be confronted with a storm trooper and started shouting something at people outside of the range of the communicator. Jan however, wanted this man's undivided attention.

"Sir. I do not know who I am contacting but I have a message for you. I am a ranking imperial officer and I have prisoners. I will forward you a list of materials I require. Contact who you need to in the settlement, get the supplies loaded onto a shuttle craft with a crew ready to fly it. This must be done within fifteen minutes. Prepare to receive data." Jan fiddled with a copy of the list for a moment, editing out the medical supplies before transmitting the list to this hapless civilian. The man looked very confused for a while, unsure what to do in this situation but Jan did not give the man the opportunity to ask questions. "Message ends." He said, cutting the transmission off but keeping the device on so he could be contacted if the town wanted to negotiate.

Gesturing at one of his men Jan ordered.

"You, patch us into their security network. I want to see what they are doing. I would not be surprised if the dogs tried to arrange some sort of trap for us."

But as things turned out, he had no need to worry. Some minutes latter the communications flickered into life and a new man presented himself over the holographic communicator. By way of introduction he said.

"Imperial troops. This is Gregor Falltam. I represent this small community. Please, do not harm the medical staff and patients. We need them for this town to survive. We will do the best we can to get your supplies. If the Empire is coming back to this part of space we don't want trouble."

Jan could not tell by the man's voice if he was not bluffing or laying a trap, he was however, genuinely scared and concerned. So be it, if fear got Jan what he needed then fear is what he would use. He would rather they acted out of duty to the Empire and respect for the troopers, but fear did for now. Pacing over to the communicator Jan said.

"I regret to inform you one of your own is already dead. He attempted to kill some of my men. We have several other prisoners some of which we will release on receiving the goods, some after they are inspected and the rest when we are aboard a shuttle loaded with the supplies which we are sure is fit to fly. We also need a reliable pilot to fly this vessel. Do you understand these conditions?" There was a brief pause before an uncertain voice replied.

"Yes we….we understand. Just don't hurt any more of them."

"Good." Said Jan before flicking off the communicator and then turning to a trooper saying. "Signal Lani and the others, tell them to enter the settlement and oversee the assembly of the rest of our supplies." Order Jan, and a faceless trooper set about executing the orders. For Jan now there was not much more to do aside for waiting. So that is exactly what he did, wait, standing over the hostages like a great spectre of doom.

After some fifteen minutes the communications flickered back into life and the town leader presented himself again. Walking over to the holographic projector Jan stood in front of it and simply said.

"Yes?"

"We have the supplies you asked for. We have assembled them in the shuttle bay ready for you. Your scout troopers have been watching over us most thoroughly. There is no way we could have tampered with the goods." The man sounded even more frightened than ever, possibly because there were now loyal imperial troops with blasters standing around him. Jan had taken a disliking to this spineless man but the advantage of a spineless man was he did what he was told.

"I will decide whether the goods are of sufficient standard. You will withdraw any armed personnel you may have between here and the shuttle bay. We are on our way." Flicking off the communicator Jan started barking at the hostages. "Up! Up you dogs. You two, carry your unconscious friends." Jan pointed at two randomly selected members of the group who then silently picked up the still unconscious guard and the limp form of the shrieking woman.

More or less at this moment the doctor also re-emerged with a trolley loaded full of supplies, flanked by three troopers.

"Fall in with the others!" Ordered Jan before turning to a trooper and saying. "Get the door open." Low and behold a few moments later and the door was open. Not only that, but there was no opposition on the other side. Temporary barricades had been put up and other pieces of haphazard cover had been made from storage crates, house hold furniture and other bits and bobs but the men manning the barricade were long gone. It seemed that the town was cooperating but the troopers were unwilling to trust the town's people just yet.

The group advanced along the blank, tight corridors in a cautious fashion. Their guns were raised ready to fire and they were permanently checking all about them. The tension in the place was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Eventually though the team did make it to the hanger. There the rest of the supplies had been neatly stacked next to a large transport shuttle. Lani and the scout troopers were also standing around as well as the town leader himself and a small team of people who had clearly been finding and preparing the supplies.

True to his word Jan turned to his troopers and order.

"Cut a third of them loose." And promptly the order was obeyed. Desperate hostages, now freed, ran over towards their friends, a combination of fear and relief over whelming them. But things were not over. Waving a few troopers forward his men started to inspect the boxes of supplies, making sure things had not been tampered with and were of an acceptable standard. Walking up to Lani, Jan asked.

"Have you had an opportunity to look over the ship?"

"Yes sir." Was Lani's smart reply.

"Good, is it of a good standard and do you suspect any foul play?"

"No sir, everything seems to be fine. Even the pilot seems good, if a little nervous."

Jan gave an approving little grunt and a gentle nod of his head before turning and sauntering up to the town leader saying.

"You seem to be keeping your end of the bargain, have no fear I shall keep mine." Jan gave a little chuckle and patted the cowering leader on the shoulder with such force it made the little man's knees bend. "We are not monsters. We just know what needs to be done for the good of the galaxy. I hope you will remember this."

At more or less this juncture several troopers, who had been inspecting the supplies, gave thumbs up signals to show all was in order. When the final sign of approval came in Jan turned behind him and further ordered. "Cut the next third loose!" Then turning to the town leader he gave a little chuckle. "See, you are doing well. No need to be so scared. However, I will have to ask you and all your friends to leave. Don't worry, I will not fly away with the hostages." The little man nodded.

"Yes, yes, all right. We will leave. Just please….." But Jan cut him off.

"I know, I know. I would do the Empire no favours by damaging her reputation and breaking my word and I am sworn to act in the Empire's best interests. Your men are safe. Now off with you." He gave the man a gentle little shove away. The poor devil was scared enough and the fear of losing men was enough to get him to comply. There was no need to terrify him anymore, even if Jan disliked him, it may sow the seeds of hate in his heart.

As ordered the civilians filled out, leaving only the troopers and the final batch of hostages behind. The troopers began to ferry the supplies on to the ship whilst Jan looked on. The doctor was still being held as a prisoner and Jan wanted to kill that man. He had been a rebel, or so Jan believed, and all rebels deserved to die in his mind. But Jan had given his word, his word as a soldier and an officer. He was torn between his desire for justice and retribution and his honour as a soldier. He was still thinking all of this over when Lani gracefully slid up behind him and said.

"Umm sir…we are ready to go sir." As if trying to gently wake a man from a day dream. Jan gave a little shake of his head to return his concentration before saying.

"Good, good. Get the last of the men in the ship. I will join you shortly." Lani nodded and clicked his heels before dashing off to the ship. Jan meanwhile saw to rest of the hostages and gathered them a safe distance away from the shuttle. When he eventually got to the doctor Jan drew his E 11 and placed it against the man's head. "As for you, you low down piece of filth." There was then a long paused before Jan drove his blaster harder against the man's skull. "You will survive today. Just so the world can know that we have honour. Whilst you worthless Rebels have only greed and envy."

He drew his blaster away but gave the doctor a sharp kick in the kidney for good measure before stalking off to the shuttle and clambering in. Inside it was packed, there was barely enough room for supplies and men and almost no one was properly seated. Jan watched the doctor, with narrowed eyes underneath his helmet as the loading ramp closed. A few moments latter there was a sudden jolt as the engines fired and the ship blasted into the sky, ready to deliver the lifesaving supplies to the needy Resolve.


	6. Chapter 6 Preparing For The Storm

The situation was improving, the first good news Talon had received all day. Every leak and potential overload in what remained of the Resolve had been safely sealed or shut down. Other areas of the ship had been sealed off from the cold, giving the crew somewhere to shelter in the lethal temperatures. They had even managed to restore some semblance of interstellar communication. The men were still working on improving the set up, and the Resolve was incapable of receiving messages, but she was able to broadcast a repeating and automated SOS signal back to Imperial space. Now they just had to hope someone was listening. Other, non medical, crewmen were working on preparing the Resolve for a fight. It was only a matter of time until the New Republic found them here, for all Talon knew they could have found him already and they were preparing for an assault right now. Work was being undertaken to get the less damaged turbo lasers back online and restore some semblance of shielding. Not only that but the storm troopers were busy preparing firing positions in and around various pieces of the hull which lay open and made for obvious entry points for any New Republic ground troops.

Talon hoped no one would find them here. They barely had any kind of power or heat signature, a casual sensor sweep would not detect them. Hopefully the New Republic ships would assume they had escaped after destroying their cruiser. But all it would take would be one thorough enemy captain, one survivor to tell his story, one ship to detect the encoded distress signal and that would be that. Talon, who was currently standing in the corridor outside the make shift office where he had given Jan and the others their orders, looked about him. After a moment or two he started to notice little things here and there. There was a charge to the air beyond the simple sharp of the cold, the crew almost buzzed with an anxious energy, the men about him sounded subtly different and the hairs on the backs of his hands were starting to stand up. He had felt this way before the attack, it was the sensation the Commander had taught him to watch out for. Talon had never been a man to believe in the accuracy of gut instinct, but he was starting to come round to the idea. They were going to be attacked, and soon.

Striding back into the make shift meeting room he walked over to the internal communicator. The system had been repaired well enough to allow anyone in any of the ships remaining vital areas to communicate with anyone in that room. As such there was now a junior crewman in their permanently, passing messages from one section of the ship to another. Walking over to the man Talon order, half lost in thought.

"Order the chief medical officer to start setting aside supplies, equipment and tables for emergency battlefield treatment. Then send messages for Jan and the chief engineer to come here for a meeting….. Immediately."

The crewman set about his appointed task whilst Talon just stood there, brow furrowed in thought. He was not sure how long it took for Jan and his chief engineer to arrive, he was losing track of time as he speculated and planned, but the two arrived almost simultaneously. Turning to face the two, with both hands behind his back, Talon said simply.

"Ah. Hello again gentlemen. As you are both aware we have been preparing for an attack. I have reason to believe that attack will be coming much sooner than we would like. Chief Engineer Horton, please outline your progress in preparing our defences."

Before speaking the chief engineer reached down and picked up some of the strewn personal possessions and other detritus that still littered the floor. Placing these on a nearby table so they formed a crude outline of what remained of the ship he started to gesture towards various points.

"We have managed to stabilise the ships systems, there is no longer any risk of a catastrophic or explosive systems failure. In terms of weapons and shielding we have managed to bring the shields back online but they are a shadow of them former selves. The power flow is irregular and unreliable, they flicker and fade unpredictably. Also, even when the shields are working they are only giving out about fifteen to twenty percent of their former power. As far as the turrets are concerned we have been splitting the workforce between the turbo lasers and the point defence weapons about fifty fifty. Most of the forward section of the ship is entirely unsalvageable and working in the rear is dangerous. We may have plugged the leaks but everything there is still very fragile. We are still working there, don't get me wrong, but things are proceeding slowly."

Using his finger the chief engineer began pointing to the locations of several turbo lasers.

"Here, here and here. We have managed to bring three turbo lasers back online on the port side. We have two functional again to starboard, here and here. These lasers can be turned to fire forward. We also have one functioning to the rear but none of the bridge guns have been brought back online. As for point defence guns we have brought a smattering of them back online right across the ship."

Talon nodded his understanding and gestured towards the back of the ship on the crude outline rigged up by the chief engineer.

"Focus you efforts here now Horton. Once they work out this is our weakest spot they will put the weight of their air and ground assault here. Plus this is where we have our most exposed and explosive components. An errant torpedo here and the reactor could detonate."

Chief Engenier Horton was making a note of this when Jan interrupted.

"They won't put their ground forces there, too dangerous. They would have to walk through the trench the ship cut in the ground as she landed, that trench is now filled with fuel, plasma, coolant and various other substances you don't want to go wading through. Plus much of the liquid is highly flammable. Any man who walked through that would surely die." Whether Jan was making a helpful observation or if he was simply trying to do Talon down because he could Talon did not know. Regardless Talon made sure his original order stayed.

"None the less, I am worried a low flying X wing could put us all out of action if she was able to make a run on the rear section. We must make this point defensible. Speaking of which Jan, how go your preparations?"

"They are going well." Was his simple and curt reply. Talon had been expecting a more detailed report and Jan knew it. But Jan was still in a mood to be awkward and confrontational. After all, he still believed the man to have received his promotion improperly and he felt that Talon had put the lives of his troopers needlessly at risk by sending them out into the cold. The fact everything had gone well hardly mattered to Jan, it was the fact Talon had taken the risk that angered him. As such he was giving the shortest, most uncooperative replies possible.

There were several seconds of awkward and charged silence between the two, Talon staring into that bleak white helmet. After a few moments though Talon broke the dead lock by saying.

"It seems I was not clear, please brief me on the layout of our defences and how you believe the enemy will behave." With these unambiguous instructions Jan was forced to give a more detailed answer.

"These ships were originally designed to hold large consignments of troopers, entire regiments. But given the lack of importance assigned to these vessels were down to only a few companies, without armour or artillery. We do however, have some support weapons and the armoury is well stocked enough to allow every crewman to carry a blaster. We have started setting up firing positions in and near the more tempting entry points. If the rebel dogs come at us there they will be slaughtered. They would have to advance across great stretches of open ground whilst we would be hiding behind barricades and heaps of twisted metal. If there commanders are smart they will send their troops at places where our hull is strong and where there are no access points. Those areas are also the gaps in our field of fire. Once they get to the hull they can start trying to climb up onto the ship or find some way of cutting through, though I doubt they will have brought the heavy kit needed to do that."

Jan also started to gesture to the crude outline of the ship.

"I have placed various lookouts across the ship just in case the rebels start crawling across the hull or they come from some unexpected angle. Roughly half of my men are manning the breaches whilst the other half are held in reserve near the armoury. I have also ordered several mini reserve pools be created out of normal naval crewmen and placed closer to the outer hull. These small squads should be able to hold any new breaches that may be made and delay the rebel troops until my troopers arrive." Jan fell silent for a while, not the aggressive silence of a few moments ago but rather a contemplative silence. After a while he said quietly. "We can hold here, I don't know for how long but we can hold."

"We must hold." Was Talon's swift reply. "If we don't hold we die. We have nowhere to retreat and I will not contemplate surrender. Let us hope the Empire sends rescue swiftly." The plan was set, now all they could do was make ready, get more lasers back online, prepare the barricades as best they could. Gesturing to the two men Talon said simply. "Thank you gentlemen for your reports, return to your duties."

Obediently the duo marched out, followed a few moments later by Talon. But the young Lieutenant Commander was not going to assist in their efforts. Instead he was making for the medical bay. You did not have to know your way around the ship to find the place. The smell of blood and the groans of the wounded carried far. Jan's delivery of medical supplies had gone a long way, everyone was getting at least semi decent treatment now but the scene was still a mess. Those who were treated before the fresh deliveries were a particularly gruesome sight. Limbs had been amputated where the limited supplies meant they could not be saved. They had not been treated with bacta and instead had only the simplest of dressings. Several of them would not survive. The array of injuries was also unsettling, crushed and severed limbs were bad enough but it was the facial injuries that disturbed Talon the most. It was as if they had ceased to be men and had instead become gross parodies of them, beasts to haunt his nightmares. He knew he was wrong to think like that, they were still good men, better men than him even, but he was instinctively uncomfortable.

Seeking out one of the medical staff Talon enquired in hushed tones.

"The commander? Is he able to receive visitors yet?" The man shook his head in response.

"No, not yet. He is out of surgery but he is not out of the woods yet. His recovery will be a difficult one. He has also yet to regain consciousness, though considering his condition that may be a blessing. When he comes round he is going to be in a lot of pain, and possibly quite some shock. It will take him time to adjust." Talon nodded his understanding and began to depart saying.

"Keep me informed of his progress." When suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed him by the trousers.

"Lieutenant Rake." The voice was weak, desperate and strangely familiar. Talon would have forgiven any of these men for not being abreast of his promotion and so rather than correct the injured man he simply turned to look at his stricken comrade. It was none other than Yulish, the spindly man who's legs had been crushed by the falling torpedo. Looking at the pale form of the man who was little more than a boy Talon noticed that one of his legs had been amputed, the other was only held together by some form of metal cage. Gently grasping Yulish's hand with his own Talon squatted down and said.

"Yes Yulish, what is it?" His voice dripping with genuine concern.

"Did we get the torpedoes out? Did we stop the front section detonating?" It was a credit to Yulish, indeed the whole Imperial military, that when he was lying on what could well be his death bed his first thought was still of the mission. Cracking a slight smile Talon nodded and responded.

"Yes young man, we did. You did you job well. The ship landed successfully." Some may have disagreed with Talon's definition of success but that was a minor point. The news seemed to calm Yulish and the man returned to just lying there, breathing heavily but very much alive. Talon gently stood up and walked away, smiling inwardly. With men and women like that on their side how could the Empire possibly lose?


	7. Chapter 7 The Storm Hits

Talon was walking around what remained of the ship, inspecting their state of readiness and calming nerves where he could, when he heard the low boom overhead. The whole ship fell silent and the entire crew looked up as one man. That was the sound of a ship entering the atmosphere, fast. It was swiftly followed by a few more low bangs. The ship's alarm system was still non-functional but no one needed to be told to go to action stations. The whole ship was suddenly a swarm of activity, every man dashing to his post with a barely contained mixture of excitement, fear, panic and resolve. The cry of.

"Alarm!" Could be heard in the bowls of the ship, just in case a few people had not heard the booms overhead. Talon dashed back towards his improvised command and control room. A few more communications stations had been installed in there now and three computers had been patched into what remained of the bridge functions, the bridge itself was almost entirely deserted. Only a single fire team of storm troopers remained there now, prepared to use the elevated position to rain death down upon their foes.

"Order all guns to hold fire!" Talon's command was perhaps a little strange. But his order was obediently dispatched. A few seconds later an X wing, a craft which had become so associated with the old Rebellion and the New Republic that it might as well have been its flag, tore from the clouds in a sharp nose dive towards the ship. It seemed ready to crash into the hull in a suicidal attack but the manoeuvrable vessel pulled up at the last moment and tore along the skin of what remained of the ship. Just as the Resolve did not fire nor did the X wing. Talon had correctly surmised that the first ship would be sent to probe the Resolve's defences, present a tempting target for her turbo lasers. This would allow the main attack force to know just how much of the Resolve was still operational and adjust their strategy accordingly. By not firing Talon made the Resolve seem utterly crippled and completely unable to defend herself, thus lulling the New Republic troops into a false sense of security and confidence.

This strategy seemed to almost immediately pay off. After less than two minutes another wave of ships emerged. A large gaggle of troop transports, escorted by flanking X wings. They were coming in quite softly, not taking the hard nose dive of the scouting fighter. This was easier on the ships and their occupants but left them more vulnerable to fire. Seeing the situation on one of the computer monitors Talon ordered.

"All turbo lasers are to lock on to the troop transports. Make sure they all have unique targets and the turrets are not to open fire until my order." Again his instructions were obediently relayed. Talon remained staring at the computer screen, watching the enemy draw closer. He was waiting until they were at optimum range before giving the order to fire. Meanwhile the Republic ships had started to broadcast a message via loud hailer.

"To any and all surviving Imperial troops. You are hereby order to surrender. Your situation is hopeless. Your ship is crippled, you are without friends here and you are deep in Republic territory. Surrender now and you will be treated with all the dignity and respect due to honest soldiers. Resist us in any form and we will be forced to kill you!"

Their message fell on deaf ears, the troops here were either too determined or too well disciplined to surrender. Instead they squatted in their positions, silence their only reply. The troop transports were on a trajectory to land on the upper hull itself, they would pay for their hubris. By now Talon was silently counting down in his head, careful not to rush the timing. There were a few moments of charged silence that seemed to last minutes, even hours in the mind of the Lieutenant Commander and his crew. Eventually though he placed both hands behind his back, as was Commander Aeron's custom, and calmly gave the order.

"All turbo lasers, open fire."

A moment later the sky erupted into a crisscross of green laser fire, the noise could hit a man like a hammer and though the ships firepower was significantly reduced what turbo lasers they had left were more than capable of dealing with troop transports. The first wave of fire was as effective as Talon had hoped. Ship after ship went down, carrying who knows how many men and vehicles. Some exploded in the air, propelling red hot metal into the sides of nearby ships. Others lost power or lost control and span wildly into the planet's surface. One even smashed into the hull but thankfully failed to penetrate the armour.

Still the turrets kept firing, bringing down a few more ships before the surprised pilots had any time to react. It only took a few moments though for the various ships to start peeling off. The X wings went low and accelerated hard, trying to dance and skip along the surface of the hull. But they were used to flying in the vacuum of space, the resistance and the currents of the air were alien to most pilots. This hampered their efforts somewhat and so, out of caution, none of them got quite as close to the hull as they were accustomed. This meant they were also less effective. The X wings were trying to knock out the turbo lasers which were still ignoring the agile fighters and concentrating on the easy prey that was the sluggish transports. Those signature red bolts started streaming from the fighters and smacking, with surprising accuracy, into the turrets. Fortunately though even barely active capitol ship shields could still absorb the shots of a small fighter craft. More problematic were the torpedoes. Those had the potential to cause some serious damage if applied properly and allowed the X wings to punch well above their weight just as the Resolve's torpedo's had allowed it to punch above hers. On the first run only one enemy fighter tried launching a torpedo, it was launched directly at a starboard turret and at very close range. Had it hit, the turret would doubtless have been torn into a mess of screaming metal and billowing flame. However, the point defence guns did their work. Upon noticing the incoming torpedo two of them tracked it faster than a human operator could and let out a constant stream of bolts, tearing into the warhead and detonating it prematurely.

Usually Talon would have ordered the point defence guns just to take pot shots at the X wings, they lacked the power of the turbo lasers but enough hits might be able to bring down a fighter. The problem though was that doing that put huge strain on the systems and Talon wanted to spare his guns as much strain as was possible. So he was only allowing the point defence guns to be used to intercept torpedoes, as they were designed to do.

The turbo lasers meanwhile just kept firing, there was no shortage of targets to pick. The smart transport pilots were veering off to the left and right, hugging the ground as close as they dared. They were making for long but shallow hills, if they could get behind them they would be able to safely unload their cargo and then hide there until the Resolve's AA had been knocked out. The less talented pilots were heading up into the sky in a desperate bid for the safety of space. This however, made them very easy targets and the turbo lasers were picking them off like a rifleman on a range. Every now and again a small hail of twisted, white hot, metal would rain from the sky and smash into the hull with the dull clangs of a thousand miss tuned bells. It wasn't long until the sky was clear of transports. They were either hiding behind the hills or had been blow out of the air, the majority had suffered the latter fate. But Talon was not about to relax just yet. Enough troops had landed to pose a problem if not properly handled and the fighters were still very much in the sky. The Resolve had inflicted a heavy blow, now they were going to pay for it.

The fighters were coming back around for another run and this time they were approaching from the vulnerable rear. Talon could feel a knot form in his throat, if a torpedo got in there… he did not like to contemplate what would happen next. He could only hope the engineering team had done their job. A hail of red bolts flew from the X wings and the ship jostled with their impact. She was a much more fragile thing now and the rear was practically un armoured, even laser fire could do some damage there. Thankfully the shields were absorbing the majority of the shots but Talon was mindful of their fickleness. The shields could drop at any moment and without warning. The lone turbo laser turret which was still functioning in the rear span to face the attackers and opened fire. Though it failed to hit anything it forced the X wings to break formation and make sudden course corrections, sending the majority of their shots off target. Only two fighters were still on course when they got to optimal torpedo range and both fighters let off a single warhead before peeling off to safety. Talon watched the shots hurtling towards them on a nearby monitor. He stood there in agonising silence, the only clue to how tense he truly felt was how tightly he was holding his hands behind him. The point defence guns sprung into life, turned and fired. The engineers had clearly listened to Talon's instructions. A great many of them had been brought back online in the rear and three guns fired on each warhead, safely detonating them well before they reached their target. Encouraged by this display Talon felt incredibly relieved and allowed himself to relax a little.

With no other targets to fire on all the turbo lasers were now trying to pick off the X wings. Eight of them had come down with the transports, which combined with the scouting X wing made nine all together. Since they were now the sole targets of the turbo lasers their avenues of approach were being shut down one by one. A bold X wing pilot thought he saw an opening and jumped up above the rest of his comrades before arching back on himself and flying, upside down, towards the bridge. The pilot clearly meant to knock out what remained of command and control, unknowing that bridge functions had been rerouted to the officer's quarters. Not only was the pilot's run a waste of his time but it ended up dooming him. Two turbo lasers tracked him and caught him in a cross fire, the pilot never stood a chance. His engine was hit and soon after it detonated in a brilliant white flash. The heat was so intense that very little metal survived the explosion, the pilot's flesh and bone would have been turned to dust and steam. It served as a stark reminder to the crew of the Resolve as to what would happen if their own engine detonated.

Made cautious by the death of their colleague the remaining X wing pilots were only taking the most conservative courses of action. They were doing everything in their power to stay away from the turbo lasers and this meant they were unable to attack vital areas. Every now and again the ship would rock with the hit of laser fire or even the occasional torpedo impact as the shields failed and they attacked blind spots in AA coverage. But the damage they were causing was little more than cosmetic now. They might cause the occasional hull breach but that was no longer the disaster it once was. It was like smashing an already broken speeder with a stick, you weren't going to cause any further significant damage. The only hopes they had of achieving that were making runs on the rear or knocking out the turrets, neither of which they had the courage to do.

This state of affairs continued for some time before the Republic ground troops began to come into view. They appeared on the starboard side, a screen of soldiers, loosely spread out and advancing in skirmish order. Talon did not give orders to open fire, the task of dealing with ground troops he had devolved entirely to Jan. The only time Jan needed Talon's authority to do something relating to the ground fight was if he needed to borrow the turbo lasers.

Jan spied the troops through a pair of range finders, smiling a seditious smile beneath his helmet. He was huddled in a maintenance space between the inner and outer hulls, looking out through a hole made by the explosion which had sent them hurtling towards this barren world. Around him he had a few other stormtroopers, less for combat but more for the passing on of orders and messages. The enemy were within range of some of his guns already but he wanted to let them come on a little, let them get some distance away from the crest of the hill. The republic troops were moving forward quickly. They knew being out in the open was unwise so they were running forward as fast as they could. After about a minute Jan turned to one of his fellow troopers and said.

"T21's and light blaster cannon are to open fire." The T21 was a marvellous weapon, small enough to be carried by one man, though only just, it could lay down a near constant stream of fire at long range. It was perhaps a little lacking in accuracy and penetration power but against massed infantry or for the purposes of suppression it was an ideal tool. The light blaster cannon meanwhile was anything but light. Originally designed to be mounted on vehicles this weapon combined firepower, fire rate and accuracy. It could penetrate light armour at close range and had become a favoured tool of stormtroopers defending prepared positions. However, it was so large and so heavy it had to be mounted on a tripod prior to firing and it needed a three man team to move, one man to carry the gun, one to carry the tripod and a third to carry the power packs.

A few moments after the order was given various little holes in the hull suddenly erupted in blaster fire. The defenceless infantry that was their target stood little chance. Some men surged forward in a desperate bid to get to the Imperial guns, others turned and ran for the far side of the hill whilst others froze in shock and panic. None of the three choices would result in these troops living. The nearest shelter was too far away and there was too much open ground between them and the ship. From the stormtroopers position the resulting slaughter was clinical. But if you had been unfortunate enough to be standing in the field you would have been confronted with a mess of shattered bones and mangled bodies. Limbs torn clean off, the exposed muscle cooking with the heat from the blaster bolts. Men's chests blown wide open in a display of gore and sinew that would etch itself into you memory. Men fell limp upon the ground, or worse hit it screaming and writhing in twisted agony. The sound of the wails and the desperate pleading to mother's and deities who were not there could echo in a man's mind for the rest of his life. The smell of the warm blood and the steaming flesh was more repulsive than the stench of ancient decay.

Jan had been on the receiving end of such punishment in the past, he knew exactly what it was like to be down there in that field. That knowledge through gave him some comfort. He knew exactly how much those Rebel dogs were suffering and he believed they deserved every second of it.

So far the battle had gone well for the Imperial troops but they all knew that might not last. After a few moments the attack patterns of the X wings changed. Jan eyed their approach suspiciously, attempting to work out what they were doing. When he saw them swing round though a horrid realisation hit him.

"Get down!" He bellowed, diving to the floor and pulling another trooper down with him. Seconds later laser fire rippled along the side of the ship. The already twisted bulkheads overhead buckled slightly as one of the supports failed and the bulkhead had to take the extra weight. One stray bolt almost smashed right into their shelter. Thankfully the shot only landed there by chance, this position had not yet been spotted. Some of the hidey holes that had opened fire a few moments ago however, were not so fortunate. The X wings were coming in in a chain, no sooner had one strafed a position than another one was there ready to do the same. They were thoroughly hammering the trooper firing positions. Jan realised with a sunken heart that some of his men would surely have been killed, those that were not dead were at the very least keeping their heads down.

Jan could hear the turbo lasers overhead desperately trying to shoot the X wings down but they were flying beneath the guns maximum defilation. The X wings would have to fly a little way out to no longer be in the guns blind spots. Jan was wondering what to do about this when another X wing came in for a pass. Diving to the floor one more Jan sheltered his head with his hands as debris fell about him. This observation post was not going to last much longer. From there the situation only got worse. Staggering to his feet Jan looked out of the hole one more time. Over the crest of the hill he could see four armed and armoured troop transports emerging. Often referred to as attack tanks these things were large vehicles, similar in design to Imperial juggernauts, though the Republics version had smother angels. Their ten wheels were large and the main body of the vehicle sat high above them, allowing it to roll across almost any terrain and they could carry a decent sized compliment of troops. Worse still they had substantially powerful laser cannons, laser cannons which were now opening fire on the side of the Resolve. Combine this with the X wing fire and the support weapons of the troopers were taking a colossal hammering.

"Order all support weapons and attached troopers to retreat inside the ship, prepare for corridor to corridor fighting. Those troopers who have not been fired upon will hold position. Relay a request to Talon, I need him to bring the turbo lasers to bear on those vehicles now!"

The order went out and Jan waited for a few moments, wondering if Talon would indeed give him the support fire he had request. Jan was worried that Talon was either too stupid or too petty to grant this request. He stood there for a few nervous moments as the turbo lasers remained resolutely focused on the X wings. Jan was just about to stride over to his new Lieutenant Commander and put a blaster bolt in between his eyes when one of the turrets swung round and fired on the vehicles. These great turrets were designed for ship to ship combat. They may be old but these things could put holes in old confederacy capitol ships, armoured vehicles were no problem and compared to X wings they were moving very slowly. The first shot landed a solid hit and the attack tank erupted in a mess of flame, metal and spinning wheels. The explosion would have been deafening and disorientating for anyone nearby as well as extraordinarily lethal. The turbo laser turned and fired again, the green bolts tearing forward and striking a second vehicle, which suffered much the same fate as the first. By now the vehicle drivers were going as fast as they could and veering wildly from side to side in an effort to avoid the lethal turbo lasers. But despite their best efforts they were still sluggish compared to the fast moving targets the gunners were used to tracking. As such a third vehicle was hit and destroyed with no difficulty.

The turbo laser moved to fire on the fourth and final vehicle when disaster struck. Since one of the lasers was busy dealing with the ground vehicles a hole had opened up in the AA coverage, a hole the X wings exploited. One observant pilot had taken the opportunity to pop up into what would otherwise have been a protected area and make a run on the turbo laser that was pounding the ground troops. The X wing fired everything it had, a volley of laser fire and two torpedoes hurtled towards the turret. A nearby point defence gun did what it could, it could not do enough. One torpedo was prematurely detonated but the other, and all the laser shots, hit home. To make matters worse the shields happened to be at particularly low ebb at that point. The turret exploded in a brilliant flash of green fire. The explosion spread down one of the plasma feeds, causing a secondary explosion at a plasma distribution centre. This blew a hole in the top deck of the ship, ripping straight through the hull and creating another gaping void that would have been disastrous in space, but crashed as they already were that damage was no longer so serious.

Revenge for the turret's destruction came quickly. Before the X wing could dive back down into the blind spot a second turbo laser turret had swung to face and dealt swift justice. The X wing erupted into a ball of flame to rival the burning remnants of the turret. But the wrecked turret was still creating problems. The flames had begun to catch and were starting to spread through the nearby area, filling the corridors with smoke. The same was happening at the plasma distribution centre, creating an ominous pillar of black smoke which coiled up into the air, sinking the hearts of the crew of the Resolve and inspiring their attackers.

"Dispatch fire and emergency repair crews to the affected areas." Commanded Talon. "Report on the functionality of all remaining turbo lasers and point defence guns." His concern was that the destruction of the plasma distribution centre would bring other guns off line. After a few moments of checking one of the crewmen in his improvised command centre replied.

"All turbo lasers are operational, the engineers put them all on different feeds. We have lost half the point defence guns on the starboard side however." The reply was calm and matter of fact as was Talon's nod of understanding. What Talon wanted to was punch a wall but that would not have been an appropriate display in front of the men.

Meanwhile, the fourth and final troop transport managed to reach one of the hull breaches. The roar and rumble of its engines could even be heard over the cacophonous blasts of the turbo lasers. The cannons atop the attack tank shifted their targets to the nearest stormable hole and started putting shot after shot into the gap, blasting away at anything that might be there. Unfortunately for Jan there were some stormtropers hiding in ambush there, armed with E11 blaster rifles they had been waiting for the enemy to get close and then open fire and since they had no support weapons they had previously avoided the pounding from the tanks and the X wings. But this bombardment was enough to destroy their cover, inflict some casualties and force the remainder to retreat into the bowls of the ship, though being highly trained troopers they did so in good order.

With no one left to oppose their boarding the doors at the back of the vehicle fell open and Republic troops swarmed out, there must have been at least three dozen men. Not enough to take the ship but enough to establish a beachhead through which other troops could be safely ferried. Jan had been hoping to avoid the grim and bloody affair that was close quarters combat but it seemed that option had been stolen from him. He was just about to abandon his position and personally lead the effort to drive the Rebel dogs off of his ship when he noticed the transport doors close and the vehicle start reversing away. It would only do that if there were more men behind the hill for it to pick up and ferry in. This was bad news, very bad news indeed. Jan had been hoping there would at least be a decent sized delay between waves, giving him and his men enough time to reclaim the lost ground. He had imagined the enemy would have to land more men via shuttle, it seemed not. This would make the fight considerably harder.

Still, there was nothing he could do about that now. Picking up his own E11 Jan started to head out when he noticed a strange movement out the corner of his eye. Something had come away from the ship and was moving at some speed towards the still reversing vehicle. Putting his rangefinder's to his eye Jan looked out and what he saw would have cause his jaw to drop had there been any room for that in his helmet. It was a scout trooper. One of his scouts had jumped off the ship, presumably from a low and exposed deck, and was now dashing towards the tank. It seemed to be carrying a blaster in one hand and several small satchels in the other. Jan recognised those satchels, they were full of explosives. With the amount of firepower that scout was carrying you could bring down a medium sized building.

Paralyzed by a combination of anticipation, suspense and concern for his undeniably brave colleague Jan just stood there and watched, gently whispering to himself.

"Come on lad….come on…come on!"

The young scout trooper had yet to be spotted by any of the Republic troops and so was able to reach the tank without much difficulty. That did not however, stop Jan's heart beating at what felt like four hundred beats per minute. Jan could make out the trooper throwing one of the charges under one of the wheel arches before diving behind a piece of fallen ship debris in order to shelter from the inevitable explosion.

The bang was like a lightning bolt hitting the ground right next to you, just as loud, just as sudden and just as unnerving. More unnerving for the crew of the vehicle however. Not only were several of the axels smashed and shattered beyond any hope of movement despite being armoured, but the explosion was so forceful that it flipped the back end of the vehicle up and thought the blast was by no means powerful enough to send the vehicle spinning into a cartwheel the vehicle did twist as it fell back down, forcing it to land on its side and immobilising it completely. The crew, panicked by this turn of events, bailed out a few moments later only to find the waiting blaster of the scout trooper who calmly gunned them down as they scrambled desperately out of the escape hatch.

This Republic assault had quickly escalated from costly to disastrous. Shocked by the sudden destruction of their one remaining support vehicle the several dozen republic troops began to stall, unsure of their ground. Ceasing upon this those troopers who had initially been pushed back by the tanks fire surged as one man back to their initial positions. It did not take much, one or two shots from their weapons, for Republic moral to completely snap. But rather than run, for these three dozen men had no place to go, they instead surrendered. It started slowly, with one man throwing down his weapon and raising his hands. The other's followed suit one by one, realising that further resistance would only lead to death.

Jan however, was not a man accustomed to taking prisoners. He had been tempted, so very sorely tempted to kill the Rebel scum from the town, to shoot him in cold blood. But here his blood was running hot, some of his men had just died and others were doubtless wounded. This scum he saw before him was actively resisting the rightful rule of the Empire this very day! How could he suffer such people to live? By the time he arrived on the scene the prisoners had been assembled in neat rows, all kneeling down and all with their hands upon their heads. Had Jan not been suffering from tunnel vision he might have noticed that the X wings had stopped their attack runs, presumably unwilling to attack whilst the enemy had hostages. Instead they were simply circling around, avoiding the turbo lasers but taking no further action.

"Get these people inside now!" Jan barked. This was partly to get everyone, including his own men under cover, and partly to give himself more time to intellectually justify what he instinctively wanted to do, which was to shoot every single one of them in the head. This filth had to die, they deserved to die!

After a while all the republic troopers were lined up inside an already cramped corridor, the smell of smoke from the nearby fire just detectable whilst the repetitive boom of the turbo lasers overhead was echoing down the corridors and vibrating through the metal. Jan felt his hand go slowly for his blaster, his fingers curling gently around the grip when all of a sudden he heard a familiar voice from before.

"Sir! What are you doing sir?" It was Lani. Who, judging by the look of him and the fact he was the only scout trooper in this corridor must have been the man who destroyed the transport. Turning slowly to his subordinate Jan said with a calm quiet that was infinitely more intimidating than unbridle shouting.

"You have done excellent work today trooper. You should leave now, take some rest." Jan could tell from Lani's tone that the young trooper both knew what Jan was planning and disapproved of it. As such Jan wanted to be rid of the man as quickly as was possible. Lani stood there for a few terrifying moments, the tension in the corridor was palpable as every man wonderd wether or not Lani would try to prevent Jan from carrying out the executions. Eventually though the scout trooper just clicked his heels smartly giving a sharp.

"Sir!" Before turning around and walking away in that cat like manner of his.

This was it, there was nothing to stop Jan now. Pacing up and down the line of prisoners with increasing speed and tension Jan was picking out his first victim. Jan was so enraged he was loosing track of time, minutes passed as he half paced half run up and down the tight corridor, rumbling like a volcano. The Republic men were as scared as Jan was angry and one of their number, shivering like a frightened child, said in a quiet voice.

"Please don't hurt us." Spinning on the man who had just unwittingly volunteered to be the first victim Jan instantly resorted to violence. Clenching his fist the trooper landed a heavy blow on the man's jaw, the crack of bone just audible. This was swiftly followed by Jan planting his armoured boot into his victim's chest, sending the man sprawling backwards and bouncing off the wall only to recoil into Jan's fist once more, this time sharply punching him in the nose and breaking it cleanly. The Republic soldier, blood streaming from his nose, teeth clenched and eyes watering in pain, slowly sank to the floor in a little heap.

Drawing his weapon Jan levelled it at the man's head and prepared to pull the trigger. Before he did so however, he indulged in his anger and hatred of this man and all his kind. Leaning down Jan said with a menacing quiet.

"Please don't hurt us? How dare you? You and your kind destroyed everything. The galaxy was a place fit for titans before your filthy kind tore down everything that was great and left us with a vile society littered with self-serving worms who know nothing of their own insignificance. Men who labour under the petty delusions that their own lives somehow matter and who contribute nothing to the great engine of the galaxy! No suffering, no torment is too extreme in the punishment of your kind Rebel dog!"

Though the Republic soldier may not have been grateful for the assault, both verbal and physical, he should have thanked Jan for it. Had Jan just shot the man then he would not have lived to see Talon round the corner of the corridor. The man was striding with the confidence and purpose only an Imperial officer could muster. Add to that a parade ground sharpness to his movements and you had quite the man. A few paces behind Talon was Lani, who had clearly run to the most senior member of the crew who was still conscious and asked him to intervene.

Jan could guess why Talon was here, to stop the executions. Jan was sorely tempted to turn on his senior and shoot him for being a traitor as well. In Jan's mind anyone who stood up for the Rebel scum might as well be a Rebel themselves and was only slightly less treasonous.

"Who is the most senior Republic officer here?" Enquired Talon. After a few moments of nervous glancing and low level mumbling one man stood forward and stated in worried tones.

"I am. Lieutenant Mantok of the New Republic….sir."

Walking forward to the officer Talon began to remove one of his gloves. The republic soldier thought he would be struck about the face with it. What actually happened however, was in no way what the man was inspecting. Extending his now bare hand Talon said.

"As the ranking officer aboard this vessel I hereby formally accept your surrender."

Confused the Republic officer extended his own hand whereupon Talon gave it a single firm handshake. It felt more like the winning team congratulating the losing team at a sporting event than the aftermath of a slaughter. Talon continued.

"I apologise for the conduct of some of my men, passions run high, I am sure you understand. Your wounded men will be taken to our medical facility and treated as soon as we have seen to our own injured. We will then find you somewhere to sleep, somewhere to eat. I can assure you that you will be treated with all the respect that a professional soldier deserves, so long as you obey our rules and make no attempt to escape you will be treated well." Gesturing towards Lani Talon added. "I will leave you in the capable care of my chief scout trooper and his scouts. Now, if you will excuse me I have a ship to run." Turning on his heel Talon began striding away, calling out after him.

"Jan, take your troopers and prepare for another attack, we don't know when they will come again." Then the Lieutenant Commander Drifted out of sight, giving a variety of orders, chiefly in relation to the point defence grid. A few moments later the stormtroopers began to file away. At first they remained coldly silent but one of them rammed his shoulder into Lani as he passed saying threateningly.

"You went behind Jan's back. You stabbed him in it. That man has done more for this ship and for you than that jumped up Talon ever will!" Another trooper, inspired by the example of the first similarly bumped into the slightly built Lani and added.

"Why stand up for these traitors? They all deserve a slow death, why prevent it? Unless of course you're a Rebel sympathiser. Is that it? I bet Imperial Intelligence will just love to hear about that."

After a while through they had all gone and Lani was left with the prisoners in an uncomfortable silence.

Talon meanwhile, was back in his improvised command centre, assessing the situation. The X wings had peeled off, unwilling to attack men who were holding their comrades prisoner. Instead they were circling the ship a safe distance away, keeping an eye on the Resolve. Things had devolved into a stalemate. A result Talon was happy with as it was the best possible outcome the Imperial troops could have hoped for. Talon was thankful that they had won the day but could not help but be a little afraid of what tomorrow might bring.


	8. Chapter 8: A Novice Negotiator

The battle may have been won, for now, but the crew of the Resolve were far from safe. Who knew how many New Republic troops still squatted over that ridge? More importantly there were still enemy ships in orbit and, after the latest display of defiance from the Remnant, more would doubtless be on their way. Should the enemy chose the Resolve could be blasted into atoms from orbit. It was only the New Republic's pride that had stopped them before, or so Talon thought, perhaps a desire to capture classified data as well. Now Talon had something more tangible to stop them, hostages. The new Lieutenant Commander found using prisoners of war as hostages distatestful, it was certainly against the old codes of military conduct. But here, in this frozen hell, with the enemy at his gates and rescue a distant prospect those old ethics were something he just couldn't afford.

Talon had wrestled long and hard with the decision, if had been several hours since the Republic attack, almost a day. Though X wings patrolled the skies well above the reach of the Resolve's remaining guns, they had not made another move. It had taken all this time to for Talon to wrestle his conscious into line. But his first duty was to the Empire, the second his mission, his thid to his crew and his fourth to the ship itself. The ship was lost and none of the other three would be well served by refusing to use the prisoners as the bargaining chips that they were. Now came another, even harder question. How in all of the Galaxy do you go about a hostage negotiation? He had received no training on this topic and what training there was in the Galaxy was usually aimed at improving the performance of the people who wanted to release the hostages rather than the people who already had them. So, he was going to have to improvise.

He had already dispatched Lani to salvage some communication equipment form the disabled Republic vehicle, and tasked one of his engineers with ensuring it was in working order and not any kind of threat to their own security systems. Now, he was staring at that very comunication equipment which he had set up in what was now a blind corridor deep in the twisted and battered recesses of the once proud ship. He hated to admit it to himself, and he certainly wouldn't admit it to the rest of the ship. But he was more than a little nervous, even afraid about this. He was more comfortable in the blazing wreck as it tore towards the frozen planet. That he had been mentally prepared for since he first signed up for the academy and he had been drilled time and time again on crash procedures but this, this was well out of his comfort zone. He found himself having to mentally work himself up to the challenge just like the first time he had been ordered to fight a fellow cadet during his training. It was made all the worse for the fact that he knew both the reliable Lani and the ranking Republic officer were waiting for him in a tiny little side room that had once been a decent sized lounge area for some of the NCOs. Now a buckled wall and collapsed ceiling had left it just large enough for two or three men to stand up in. He had his little stage performance all lined up. Now all he had to do was pick up the communicator.

After a few more minutes of nervous hesitation Talon shot his hand forward and snapped up the device, as if it were a scuttling spider about to tear off into the shadows and hide. Putting this business end to his ear Talon spoke in tones which were surprisingly calm and authoritative given the nervous wreck he was on the inside.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Talon Rake, commanding officer aboard the Imperial vessel Resolve. I am calling for the Commander Aries of the New Republic vessel Swift." Talon had obtained both the name of the Captain and the name of the command ship from talking to the most senior of his captives. Giving such information was little more than giving name rank and number but the Republic officer had revealed more than he ought. The captive had been labouring under the misapprehension that Talon didn't know the names and classes of the local New Republic ships but Talon knew them all too well. The Resolve had been hunting in this region of space for some time, and evading the local Republic presence all the while. During those weeks the Resolve had picked up quite a bit of information about their pursuers. Protocol stated that when several officers of the same rank had to establish a chain of command the officer with the highest stated authority was at the top of pile. Practically speaking this usually meant the officer with the highest class of vessel at his command. If the Swift was leading the Republic's efforts here then that meant the Swift was the most significant vessel in the skies above and she was only an aging EF76 Nebulon B frigate. Those things had put in good service but like the Resolve they were old and outdated, though not quite as old as the Resolve. More importantly though she was only an escort frigate. Even an old Confederacy Cruiser could turn her into dust. So if an Imperial class star destroyer came to the aid of the Resolve, nothing in the sky above could stop it. But rescue was a distant prospect. For now Talon had to concentrate on surviving

After a few moments, and hushed muttering a strangely normal voice came back down the line.

"This is Commander Aries. We know you have hostages, how are they?" The voice didn't just seem normal but tired and perhaps a little fed up. Clearly Aries wasn't at his mental best. Truth be told the New Republic officer had been restless since the failed assault, it had been a shaming defeat for him and now he had to deal with a hostage crisis. It was only a combination of fear and caffa that kept Captain Aries on his feet, a situation not entirely dissimilar to Talon, though Talon did a better job of hiding it.

"You can speak with one of them yourself Commander." Then, calling out in a louder voice. "Bring in the prisoner." When Lieutenant Mantok, the most senior captive, was once again brought before Talon he seemed just as cowed as before, though now he was less afraid. Talon had been true to his word, the captives were hardly living in luxury but they were warm, safe, fed and those who needed it had received medical attention. Passing over the communicator to the Republic officer Talon just lent back on the upturned crate he was using as a chair, steepling his fingers as he listened to the ensuing conversation.

"This is Lieutenant Mantok speaking."

"Mantok? It's Aries, how are you?" The Republic commander had lost all pretense at authority and impartiality, he was speaking like a concerned friend rather than a soldier. Talon couldn't blame the man. The young Imperial had friends on this ship to, friends whom he would genuinely be concerned about were they in Mantok's position. Talon just thought he would have done a better job at maintaining his calm and impartial aura. Then again, you never know until it happens to you.

"I'm fine sir, a little cut up but okay."

"Cut up? Have they..." Suddenly Aries was wide awake, his voice tinged with panic and rage. He had read a little too much into his junior's choice of wards. A mistake Mantok swiftly corrected.

"No no, their commander has acted like a gentlemen. We have been treated well." His words were as calming as they were quick, as if he were trying to settle a nervous man with a gun. Come to think of it that was almost exactly what he was doing. Aries took a long breath to calm himself before asking in considerably more level tones.

"How many of you are there?"

"Thirty six men here sir. Six wounded. They have been treated and are as comfortable as can be expected".

"What about the rest of the men?"

"Well I don't know how many we still have sheltered behind the ridge, but I imagine you know that. Aside from we thirty six though sir I don't think there are any survivors. The Imperial gunners were through." There was a few moments of heavy and sorrowful sadness. It was obvious Mantok was thinking on a lost comrade, perhaps picturing the torn and twisted bodies , something akin to that, It was written all over his face. Even the quiet from the communicator seemed loaded with the same emotion. But Aries regained control of the conversation and asked by way of distraction.

"But you are well?"

"Quite well." Again there was a silence but this time it was ended by Talon who reached forward for the communicator saying.

"Thank you soldier, you may return the prisoner to his men now." With that Lani gently guided Mantok out whilst Talon returned to business. "Now then. I've been fair and good. Let us talk officer to officer. Provide me and my men with adequate shuttles to leave the system and I guarantee very prisoner will be handed over to you without harm." It was too much to ask for but Talon didn't know how else to open. Commander Aries however, knew how to respond.

"No." His reply was firm and definite. "You aren't leaving this system. You aren't even leaving this planet unless it is in our custody. If you hand over the hostages you will be treated well. I might even put in a few words to get you moved to the top of the prisoner transfer list if our two armies ever do a swap but that's it. Truth be told you will likely be spending the rest of your little war behind bars. If you resist you will be spending the war in a labour camp and if you so much as bruise one of my men..." the threat went unspoken but it was all the more potent for it. Talon had not been expecting this kind of resistance. After the emotional display of a mere seconds ago he was expecting grudging complicity. Instead he seemed only to have angered Aries.

"You know full well I can't accept those terms. A true Imperial would sooner die than voluntarily submit to capture." This was supposed to be the beginning of some noble speech by Talon but Aries abruptly cut him off.

"True Imperial!" The man sounded offended by the very concept. "This ideal of Empire is a myth, there is no such thing and there are no true Imperials. Your Remnant cling on because they have nowhere else to go. Even in the high times your mob only fought for your own worth. Go on. Ask your crew. See if they would rather die for this corpse of an Empire you cling on to. Or maybe they would rather see their families once this little resistance of yours is finally stamped out! Maybe you dream of a time that never was but they will not follow you. Ask them!"

Some men may have been unsettled by the accusation, provoked into introspection. For Talon however, it only served to further convince him of how ignorant the enemy was, both of the truth and of his crew. He knew that even the stormtroopers, for all they may resent him personally, would rather die by his side than hand themselves over to the enemy. But Talon also knew that this talk was not going his way and the longer he stayed on the line the worse it would get. Improving desperately the man sighed and said.

"I do not believe you are right. But what sort of officer would I be if I did not consult with my men. I agree to nothing but I will do as you ask. I will talk to them and weigh their opinions. But my crew is not insignificant and we are all very busy. It will take me at least a day to speak to them all." Talon was clawing for as much time as he could. He wasn't thinking beyond tomorrow now but just getting to tomorrow was challenge enough. The reply that came back was surprisingly accommodating.

"You have eighteen hours Lieutenant Commander. Your men may not thank you for leading them into this mess but they might thank you for getting them out alive. Eighteen hours. I'll need your decision by then."

Talon could have given him his decision now but instead he said in a fake, small voice.

"Thank you, Rake out." Upon which Talon cut the communication and waited a few seconds to be entirely sure it was off. After which he leapt up, span around in a fury, and kicked the crate he had been sitting on so hard it smashed. It wasn't satisfying enough but Talon was out of things to obliterate. He was losing control of the situation and he did not like it. Thankfully he was alone, so there were no witnesses to the embarrassing display. The man bent over in frustration and gritted his teeth in silent rage, clenching his fists so hard they hurt. He remained like this for about ten or fifteen seconds before he regained his composure and straightened up, breathing heavily but once more himself. Spinning on his heel once more he stalked off down the corridor with a menacing purpose and grim determination. Snatching at his own internal communicator he brought it up to his lips and said. "All senior staff to the command room in seventeen C." Then, adding after a pause. "They come for us in eighteen hours."


End file.
